LOSS OF PROFESSIONAL CONSERVATIVES
DIS-UNITING THE GOP
By: John LeBoutillier
After 48 hours, it is now possible to do a more thorough political analysis of the Bush choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court:
What does the choice of a heretofore unknown for the highest court in the land tell us about the Bush Administration?
Quite simply, this choice signals not only a sense of vulnerability on the part of Team Bush - what with dreadfully low poll ratings, GOP scandals in the Senate and House, a morass in Iraq and the ongoing disaster in our own Gulf - but also a miscalculation about its own GOP/conservative base.
For six years, Karl Rove’s political strategy has always been to re-inforce ‘the base’ - that 43% of the nation that is hard-core conservative.
Rather than try to expand that base - as Ronald Reagan did - Rove and Bush have been content to shore it up with hot-button issues along the way i.e. anti-Gay Marriage Amendments and referenda, presidential intervention for Terry Schiavo, constant talk about Creationsim vs. Evolution etc...
Along the way, the Bush White House has grown arrogant and cocky about the ‘professional conservatives’ - those who make a living off Right Wing causes through fundraising, lobbying, speech-making, writing and TV appearances as ‘Talking Heads.’ Many of these people are on the GOP payroll in one form or another - either as consultants or contract professionals - or indirectly through their perceived proximity to the White House.
These ‘professional conservatives’ have been on the Bush bandwagon since 1999; they have stuck with him all the way. So no wonder the White House figured they could count on them - no matter what?
But - alas - some of these ‘professionals’ are going public with their disappointment or disgust over the Miers pick. And it is this public ‘separation’ from the White House that is the most revealing aspect of the Miers selection:
It tells us that the Bush Presidency is deteriorating right in front of our eyes.
When a just -re-elected President hits 40% - or 38% two weeks ago - in the polls in his first year of his second term, he is in Big Trouble politically. And then when his own base starts to feel free to voice public discontent, then what is left?
Yes, the Miers pick is the President’s prerogative; and she may very well be confirmed.
But it is Mr. Bush’s fear of losing a contentious battle in the Senate combined with his beginning to lose his base that signals that this second term is going to be aimless, agenda-less failure.
The next three and one half years will be all reaction instead of positive action.
And when it is over, the Bush Family may very well have again - like the first President Bush did in 1992 - greatly dis-united the GOP and alienated the conservative base. |
