TOO REAGANESQUE (via David Linton):

Bush's Base Betrayal (Richard A. Viguerie, 5/21/06, The Washington Post)

As a candidate in 2000, George W. Bush was a Rorschach test. Country Club Republicans saw him as another George H.W. Bush; some conservatives, thinking wishfully, saw him as another Ronald Reagan. He called himself a "compassionate conservative," which meant whatever one wanted it to mean. Experts from across the party's spectrum were flown to Austin to brief Bush and reported back: "He's one of us."

Republicans were desperate to retake the White House, conservatives were desperate to get the Clinton liberals out and there was no direct heir to Reagan running for president. So most conservatives supported Bush as the strongest candidate -- some enthusiastically and some, like me, reluctantly. After the disastrous presidency of his father, our support for the son was a triumph of hope over experience.

Actually, this just contributes to the heirdom, Mr. Viguerie having made a notorious ass of himself by trying to read Ronald Reagan out of conservatism too. Of course, he had a stronger casde there, the Gipper having repeatedly raised taxes, saved SS, and buddied up to Mikhail Gorbachev.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 22, 2006 9:02 PM