KNEW HIM? HE'S STILL GOT REAGAN'S FOOTPRINTS ON HIS BUTT:

Just got a great, though repeatedly self-contradictory, e-mail:

Richard A. Viguerie FOR RELEASE May 22, 2006

ConservativeHQ.com Contact Nancy Bakersmith

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Richard Viguerie Criticizes President Bush’s Betrayal of Conservatives; White House Responds; Viguerie Replies to the White House

The May 21 Washington Post published an article by Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com and the author of the forthcoming book, Conservatives Betrayed: How Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause, criticizing President George W. Bush’s betrayal of conservatism.

The Washington Post article is on-line at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901770.html

Viguerie also participated in a May 22 Washington Post on-line discussion of his article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/05/19/DI2006051901212.html

Peter Wehner, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Strategic Initiatives, sent the following e-mail message to an unknown number of persons:

Original Message-----
From: Wehner, Peter H. [mailto:Peter_H._Wehner@who.eop.gov]
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 11:54 AM
Subject: Richard Viguerie: Now & Then

Now

“Sixty-five months into Bush's presidency, conservatives feel betrayed... The main cause of conservatives' anger with Bush is this: He talked like a conservative to win our votes but never governed like a conservative.” -- Richard Viguerie, “Bush's Base Betrayal,” The Washington Post, Sunday, May 21, 2006

Then

“[Richard Viguerie], who also is a leading fund-raiser for conservative candidates, indicated he would not support Reagan in 1984, adding: ‘I'm very disillusioned with a president that walks away from the Soviet Union.’” -- “Conservative Leader Blasts Reagan on Plane Reaction,” Associated Press, September 8, 1983

“‘Just like Jimmy Carter gave conservatives the back of the hand, we see the same thing happening in the Reagan administration,’” said Richard Viguerie, the direct-mail wizard who is the leading fund-raiser for conservative candidates and causes. ‘Almost every conservative I have talked to in the last two months has been disappointed in the initial appointments to the Reagan cabinet,’ Viguerie said.”-- “Conservatives Angry with Reagan,” Associated Press, January 27, 1981

“‘The White House slapped us in the face,’ says Richard A. Viguerie, the conservative direct-mail expert. ‘The White House is saying you don't have a constituency we're concerned about. We don't care about you.’” -- “For Reagan and the New Right, the Honeymoon Is Over,” Washington Post, July 21, 1981

“[M]any longtime conservative activists are not buying Reagan's rhetoric. ‘The emperor has no clothes on; just about every conservative I know is now acknowledging it,’ said Viguerie.” -- “Reagan Seeks to Calm His Right-Wing Critics” Los Angeles Times, September 6, 1987

“In other important matters he [Reagan] has changed sides and he is now allied with his former adversaries, the liberals, the Democrats and the Soviets," said Viguerie.” -- “Conservatives Hit Reagan on Treaty,” Los Angeles Times, December 5, 1987

“Eight years after Reagan's nomination for president, the conservative movement is directionless” -- Richard Viguerie, “What Reagan Revolution?” The Washington Post, August 21, 1988

Richard A. Viguerie Replies to White House:

Apparently the White House’s response to my article in the May 21 Washington Post is to send out an e-mail from Peter H. Wehner, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, consisting of six quotes by me criticizing Ronald Reagan during his presidency.

That’s a lot easier than trying to respond to my arguments. That’s a lot easier than trying to explain away the many examples I give of how Bush has betrayed the conservative movement. And that is standard operating procedure for this White House: Put the spotlight on the president’s critic, rather than respond to the critic’s arguments.

Peter, I plead guilty to your implied criticism of me. I am, indeed, a consistent conservative. I put loyalty to conservative principles above loyalty to the Republican Party or a politician.

Yes, I followed that policy even during the Reagan presidency. President Reagan was a hero to me and most conservatives. I voted for him in 1980 and 1984, and the conservative organizations that used my direct mail services helped elect him to the White House. But he was not perfect by any means, and his administration disappointed conservatives on a number of issues. Reagan’s true friends were those who would tell him when he was not governing as a conservative, such as the appointments of Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy to the Supreme Court, the tax increases of 1982 and 1983, and signing into law the amnesty of illegal aliens in 1986.

As I explain in my forthcoming book, Conservatives Betrayed,

* This is why conservatives must maintain their independence. Our job as conservatives is not to be mouthpieces for any administration, but to give credit where credit is due, and to give criticism where criticism is due.

* This is why the proper role for the conservative movement is to act as a Third Force in American politics, rather than a third party. Our constant goal is to return the Republican Party to conservative principles and to move the Democratic Party to the right as well.

* In the 1960s we conservatives learned how to nominate a conservative (Barry Goldwater) for the presidency. During the 1970s and in 1980, we conservatives learned how to nominate and elect a conservative (Ronald Reagan) as president. The remaining task for conservatives is to nominate and elect a president who will govern as a conservative.

One final word, Peter. I knew Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush is no Ronald Reagan. Bush’s presidency follows in the tradition of Big Government Democrats and Republicans like Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and George H. W. Bush. That is not a conservative line-up!

Note that while he asserts that Ronald Reagan didn't govern as a conservative he fails to include the tax-hiking, entitlement-rescuing, liberal-judge-nominating, record-deficit-spending, amnesty-granting Gipper amongst the Big Government Republicans, though he does have sense enough not to include the budget-balancing, entitlement-reforming Bill Clinton among the Big Government Democrats. Of course, fairness would require him to acknowledge that George W. Bush, despite some deficit spending and amnesty, at least belongs with Reagan and Clinton -- if not to their Right -- on the basis of tax cuts, entitlement reform, and exemplary judicial appointments.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 24, 2006 1:54 PM