Conservatives divided on some Bush policies
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent
Thu Feb 9, 3:20 PM ET
news.yahoo.com
Barely more than a year after celebrating a big U.S. election win, frustrated conservative activists gathered on Thursday in sometimes open revolt over Bush administration policies on immigration, spending and domestic eavesdropping.
The first day of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference featured sharp disputes on immigration policy and criticism of the expanding federal budget, growing entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security and threats to individual privacy rights.
The mood of frustration was noticeably different from last year's gathering, when White House political adviser Karl Rove touted Republican gains and the re-election of President George W. Bush in 2004 as a triumph of conservative ideas.
"George Bush is a conservative and most conservatives like him and support him," said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, a prominent lobbying group. "But most conservatives, at one level or another, are troubled by much of what they see going on in our government."
The past 15 months have been tough on conservatives because of Bush's sliding poll ratings, growing doubts about the Iraq war and a rash of scandals that brought down former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay and a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.
While they admire Bush's tax cuts and his appointments to the federal bench, Keene said conservatives "are frustrated and they want to get things fixed."
Many of the panels and speakers at the three-day conference featured hot-button topics that have fueled conservative anger at Bush, with none hotter than the deep Republican split on immigration policy.
Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a potential 2008 presidential contender who has made immigration his priority, brought some activists to their feet with a condemnation of Bush's spending and immigration policies.
"The American people don't know what Republicans stand for anymore," Tancredo said.
He called for repeal of the new Medicare prescription drug plan for seniors and the No Child Left Behind education act, laws passed by the Republican-controlled Congress that he said have driven up spending and removed local controls on education.
The Republican split over immigration, a major headache for party strategists, has exposed the gulf between conservative activists like Tancredo who oppose guest worker and amnesty programs and Republican business interests that rely on immigrant labor.
Bush, mindful of the growing clout of Hispanic voters nationwide, has proposed letting foreign workers and some illegal immigrants in the United States take jobs as temporary workers.
On immigration, Tancredo said, "it is the president who is out of step with his party, not Tom Tancredo."
Attendees at the conference wandered among more than 120 display booths featuring causes, issues, political action committees and right-wing memorabilia, along with a row of conservative talk radio and blogger booths.
The conference features an appearance by former Rep. Bob Barr, a leading conservative critic of threats to civil liberties in the war on terrorism, and panels on tax reform, reining in spending and entitlement growth.
"I think there is more tension here than usual," said Muriel Coleman, the owner of a Christmas shop and part-time political consultant in Madison, Wisconsin. "But that's why we're talking about it -- I think it's really helpful to get this all out in the open."
Conservative commentator George Will opened the conference with criticism of the Bush administration's failure to plan for a post-war Iraq, and he said the administration's legal foundation for domestic spying was "a stretch that conservatives should not docilely accept."
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