Right says Bush is wrong
President's base unhappy with policies on immigration, budget, wiretaps and war
Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief
Sunday, February 12, 2006
www.sfgate.com
Washington -- They railed against President Bush's immigration plan, jeered his budget, condemned his domestic surveillance operation, and bemoaned the prolonged U.S. involvement in Iraq.
Such sentiments could probably be heard on any Bay Area street corner, but the past few days they came from a gathering of several thousand conservative Republicans in Washington who voiced alarm that their president had strayed from his conservative moorings.
Participants at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference aimed their most potent venom at the usual suspects, such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., ("It takes a village to raise an idiot,'' read one bumper sticker) and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., ("Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun,'' read another).
Patrons snatched up perennial best-selling buttons and T-shirts reading: "I love animals. They're so delicious,'' "Evolution is Science Fiction,'' and "Gun Control is Using Both Hands.'' A deck of playing cards entitled "The 52 most dangerous liberals in America,'' featured House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, as the queen of hearts, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., as the nine of clubs, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., as the jack of clubs (Clinton was the ace of spades.)
But the event was distinguished by an open frustration with Bush and, to a lesser degree, the Republican Congress.
Faced with threats to the GOP majority and less than 36 months remaining in Bush's presidency, participants expressed dismay that Republicans had not taken full advantage of their electoral clout, which seemed to offer boundless opportunities when the president was first sworn in.
While Bush has always been more attentive to, and had stronger support among conservatives than his father had, he is under increasing fire for growing the national debt to $8.2 trillion, nearly a 50 percent jump since he became president.
"The American people don't understand what Republicans stand for anymore,'' roared Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who proudly declared that he had voted against Bush's prescription drug plan, his Central American trade proposal and his "$100 billion Katrina slush fund.''
"American conservatives have watched dumbfounded as their Congress -- their Republican Congress -- and the Republican White House engineered the largest expansion of the federal government in modern history,'' Tancredo said. |
