Disaffected conservatives set a litmus test for '08-Want vow to curb presidential power

[babylonsister]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/06/12/disaffected_conservatives_set_a_litmus_test_for_08/

Disaffected conservatives set a litmus test for '08
Want vow to curb presidential power


By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | June 12, 2007

WASHINGTON -- A new political group recently asked Mitt Romney to promise not to wiretap Americans without a judge's approval or to imprison US citizens without a trial as "enemy combatants." When Romney declined to sign their pledge, the group denounced him as "unfit to serve as president."

Such rhetoric might be expected from liberal activists. But these critics, who call their organization American Freedom Agenda, are hardly leftists. They represent what they insist is a growing group of disaffected conservatives who are demanding that the Republican Party return to its traditional mistrust of concentrated government power.

"Mitt Romney's ignorance of the Constitution's checks and balances and protections against government abuses would have alarmed the Founding Fathers and their conservative philosophy," said Bruce Fein, one of the group's co founders and a Reagan administration attorney, in a press release last month attacking Romney for not signing the pledge.

The American Freedom Agenda, which intends to put all candidates in both parties to the same test, is aiming to revive a strand of conservatism that they say has been drowned out since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The conservative principle of limited government, they say, means not just cutting the budget, but imposing checks and balances on those who wield power.

"Conservatives have to go back to the basics," said co founder Richard Viguerie , a veteran direct-mail strategist and author of "Conservatives Betrayed: How the Republican Party Hijacked the Conservative Cause." "We have to go back and re launch the conservative movement. And for traditional conservatives, it's part of our nature to believe in the separation of powers."

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[bryant69]

1. Poor bastards

They aren't really going anywhere. The base isn't keen on restricting the power of the President (they want him to go get them terrorists) and the Business types don't care about this sort of issue.

It's tempting to look for signs of sanity in the Republicanoid party / conservative movement, but at the moment such signs of sanity aren't likely to blossom into anything.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[MidwestTransplant]

2. Sorry, but President Hillary is going to label you all enemy combatants

and send you off to Gitmo. Nothing you can do about it now. Just get your affairs in order.

Oh she is going to take your guns too.

[KansDem]

3. Where were these "disaffected conservatives" seven years ago?

When BushCo started all this malaise? They were crowing about how they had the power: the White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Media. They were drunk with it, and they were abusing it just as a wino abuses a cheap-bottle of wine. Sure, they got what they wanted: neo-con fascism. Now that there is a chance the White House could go blue next year, they want to return to their "traditional roots" of limited government with "separation of powers."

I don't think so, Repubs, not until we undo all the damage you've done and hold you accountable for it! :grr:

[librechik]

4. no hurry, they just want it for the Democratic president

[Bandit]

5. the Founding Fathers and their conservative philosophy,"

What a dumb ass. They were more Liberal than today's liberals and that is a fact..