In what increasingly appears to be the leitmotif of the Bush administration, leading Republicans and conservatives broke ranks with the president earlier this month, this time over his staunch defense of the Dubai ports deal. House Republicans boldly threatened to override any presidential veto. Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin rallied her readers to help stop what she called “the port sellout.” Conservative talk radio was ablaze with mutiny. [Eventually,] the pressure became too great, and the company pulled out of the project before the White House had to wave the white flag.
You know you’re in trouble when those responsible for you stealing winning the 2000 election are deserting you like rats leaving a sinking ship. Could it be that it’s taken Conservatives five years to figure out that George W. Bush is as much a Conservative as Pee Wee Herman is?
Over the past five years of growing deficits, growing government involvement in our private lives, and a pointless, endless, murderously wasteful war in Iraq, Our Glorious Leader has trampled traditional Conservative principles. You remember those, right?- smaller, decentralized government, fiscal discipline, peace through strength? If George W. Bush is a Conservative, I’m the Queen of England.
Of course, no true Conservative really gives a rat’s @$$ about my opinion, because I’m about as Liberal as they come. Then again, they don’t have to, because enough True Believers are leaving the Good Ship Lollipop in life rafts as it is.
In his new book, Impostor, conservative budget expert Bruce Bartlett excoriates Bush as a traitor to the Reagan legacy. Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan has suggested that the Jack Abramoff affair is a symptom of a new Republican culture that has become indifferent to government largess. William F. Buckley Jr., the founder of the modern conservative movement, has recently announced that he believes the war in Iraq was a mistake.
In Washington, meanwhile, the conservative think tanks have been stewing about Bush’s unprecedented levels of spending since he signed the Medicare drug-benefit legislation in 2003 ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ the largest entitlement expansion ever. Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation calls the Bush years “an era of massive, unsustainable spending increases and budget deficits.”
Indeed, since his re-election in 2004, Bush seems to have drifted from one Republican revolt to the next. The sense of conservative betrayal in the face of the Harriett Miers nomination gave way to conservative furor over federal spending plans to rebuild New Orleans. No sooner had that passed when some Republicans joined Democrats in criticizing the president for his domestic wiretapping program.
Of course, as much as I enjoy watching Republicans eat their young, the reality is that this, while hugely entertaining, is full of sound and fury signifying nothing. The best we can hope for is that Our Glorious Leader’s reputation and legacy will be tarnished, but we are still stuck with almost three more years of the worst, most corrupt, inept, and mean-spirited President in our nation’s history. It’s not as if the Republican majority is going to be willing to do anything (e.g.- impeachment, censure) that could jeopardize their grip on power.
Yes, Republicans will continue to piss and moan about Our Glorious Leader not adhering to Conservative principles, but the man’s a lame duck, and this is the sort of thing that normally happens to lame duck Presidents. Republicans are frightened- and rightly so- that they will get hammered in the mid-term elections this fall. Based on their lack of leadership, their moral decay, and their ineptitude, they probably will. If this happens, Democrats should not interpret the results as an endorsement of their poliicies. If anything, it will be a repudiation of the inability of Republicans to keep their promises.
Then again, what does Our Glorious Leader have to worry about? He’ll ride off into the sunset at the end of his second term (with American troops still occupying Iraq) and leave the GOP to turn on itself as they begin to look for the next Great White Conservative Hope. Good luck with that one, eh?
