Most conservatives have stood with Bush from the beginning. Those of us who know him like him. We’ve swallowed policies we might otherwise have objected to because we’ve believed that he and those around him are themselves conservatives trying to do the right thing against sometimes terrible odds. We’ve been there for him because we’ve considered ourselves part of his team.
No more.
From now on, this administration will find it difficult to muster support on the right without explaining why it should be forthcoming. The days of the blank check have ended because no thinking conservative really wants to be part of a team that requires marching in lock step without question or thought, even if it is headed by the president of the United States.-- David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, Oct. 17
***
Does that mean the party over?
Nearly five years after Bush's questionable presidency began, maybe conservatives are finally catching on. Do a search for reaction to what Keene said, and you see a lot of conservatives sitting on their hands. Sen. George Allen (R-VA), on yesterday's edition of NBC's Meet the Press, didn't give an answer to Tim Russert's simple question: "Do you share that view?"
Sure, it isn't politically correct at this juncture to completely jump ship. But some well-known Republicans -- like Sens. Santorum (R-PA), Lott (R-MS), McCain (R-AZ), Hagel (R-NE), Graham (R-SC) and Brownback (R-KS) -- have publicly disagreed with the Bush Administration on a variety of issues, most recently the nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina, fiscal responsibility after the hurricane, Social Security privatization and federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
But Keene's statement takes this disagreement to a whole new level. Keene voices something that maybe a lot of Republicans have privately been feeling. He's had enough of Bush's B.S.
***
It's a good time to abandon ship. After all, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) may be in trouble. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) may be in trouble. Senior White House Advisor Karl Rove, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley (and maybe several others in the administration) may be in trouble.
But, it's just as possible that all of the above will be found innocent of any wrongdoing. Read the conservative blogs, or listen to the conservative pundits, and you hear that Frist did nothing wrong, DeLay is the victim of a partisan witch hunt, and at worst, Rove and Libby will be found guilty of obstruction of justice and-or perjury, rather than anything directly related to the treasonous act of exposing a covert CIA operative. (Although that sort of crime didn't prevent conservatives from seeking Bill Clinton's impeachment, for perjuring himself about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, even though Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation found no wrongdoing tied to the Arkansas land deal that gave the investigation its name.)
***
But if Keene is correct -- if the days of the "blank check" are over -- then regardless of who is convicted and who is innocent, the party's singular voice, and the might that comes with it, could very well be over.
Maybe Keene is reacting simply to the Miers nomination. Maybe he realizes that Bush, with a popularity rating of barely 40%, has no coat-tails heading into next year's mid-term elections. Maybe he's just tired of a president who hasn't acted like a fiscal conservative. Or a president who has increased the size of government. Or a president who told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (wrong), that the Iraq War would pay for itself through oil revenues (wrong), and that our mission was accomplished (wrong).
The American people voted for Bush, twice, in part because of the conservatives ability to speak with one voice, and to demonize Al Gore and John Kerry as being outside the mainstream. Gore was portrayed as a liar, and Kerry was portrayed as aloof and undeserving of his war medals.
The mainstream media, played like fools, went along with this scam, repeating the canard that Gore claimed to invent the Internet, and laughing at him when he talked about learning from his father on the family's Tennessee farm. Four years later, the media gave equal billing to the Swift Boat Veterans, even after it was clearly shown that the Swifties were backed by the same friend of Rove, Robert Perry, who backed the false attacks against John McCain (R-AZ) in the 2000 South Carolina primary, and even after it was clear that the Swifties "truth" was little more than hearsay and partisan-driven rumors. Meanwhile, "liberals" like Maureen Dowd wrote again and again about Kerry being aloof, with Dowd in one column altering a Kerry quote to help repeat the stereotype.
During the last elections, polls showed that Americans preferred to have a barbecue with Bush, or let him run their family business. Even as he crafted policies that favored corporate America or the individiual, the American people were led to believe that Bush was a "regular guy" who was looking out for their best interests -- an image helped greatly by a cohesive Republican Party with a well-crafted message, repeated over and over in the mainstream media.
If Keene is correct,
that well-crafted, singular voice won't continue. And Americans will be better off for it. ***
This item first appeared at
Journalists Against Bush's B.S. 
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