The Exercise of Vital Powers

John McCain is a “true conservative,” President Bush says

How they hell would you know what a conservative is, Mr. President?

THe GOP’s chances of getting the majority back has just gone up:
Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senates No. 2 Republican, plans to resign his seat before the end of the year, congressional and White House officials said Monday.

More evidence of the failure of the Bush Administration: GOP Is Losing Grip On Core Business Vote

When Wall Street is donating to the Democrats you know the GOP has f’ed things up royally.

Some well-known business leaders have openly changed allegiances. Morgan Stanley Chairman and Chief Executive John Mack, formerly a big Bush backer, now supports Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. John Canning Jr., chairman and chief executive of Madison Dearborn Partners, a large private-equity firm, now donates to Democrats after a lifetime as a Republican. Recently, he told one Democratic Party leader: “The Republican Party left me”

Its not just a few people who have jumped ship, donations are down across the board:

Federal campaign-finance reports document shifting support in some quarters of the business community. Hedge funds last year gave 77% of their contributions in congressional races to Democrats, up from 71% during the 2004 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan analyst of campaign finances. Last year the securities industry gave 45% of its money to Republicans, down from 58% in 1996, the center said.

The only way we’re gonna win in 2008 is to run against the big-government and incompetent record of George W. Bush.

The only way to keep the White House in G.O.P. hands, Gingrich said, would be to nominate someone who, in essence, runs against Bush, in the style of Nicolas Sarkozy, the center-right cabinet minister who just won the French Presidency by making his own President, Jacques Chirac, his virtual opponent. Sarkozy is a transforming figure in French politics, Gingrich said, and he suggested that the only Republican who shared Sarkozy’s “transformative” approach to governing was, at that moment, eating a bowl of oatmeal at the McLean Family Restaurant.

“What’s fascinating about Sarkozy is that you have an incumbent cabinet member of a very unpopular twelve-year Presidency, who over the last three years became the clear advocate of fundamental change, running against an attractive woman”—the Socialist leader Ségolène Royal—“who is the head of the opposition,” Gingrich went on. “In a country that wanted to say, ‘Not them,’ he managed to switch the identity of the ‘them.’ He said, ‘I’m different from Chirac, and she’s not. If you want more of the same, you should vote for her.’ It was a Lincoln-quality strategic decision.” (Letter from Washington: Party Unfaithful: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker)

Roftl

I am this morning, declaring my candidacy for Congress in the GOP primaries against Ron Paul. If he does not resign his seat, and if another Republican candidate does not declare against him, I will run a balls-to-the-wall campaign for Congress in Texas CD 14.

I am the guy that got Ron Paul elected to Congress in 1996. I can and will defeat him in 2008.

Eric Dondero, Fmr. Senior Aide
US Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX)
1997-2003

HT: Reason Magazine: Blowback, Texas-Style

Will pretty much sums up my take on the Bush Administration.

Good Will Hinton’s Free Market Thoughts and Political Review » Blog Archive » Regretting Bush

I disagree that ““Those who would have us pull out of Iraq are unwittingly encouraging our enemies” is simply a slur”. I do believe that the timetable crowd emboldens the enemy by making them think “we win if we can outlast them, and we can speed things up with lots of little attacks”.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I should have known then what I know now. When the stakes are who gets to divy up the spoils of a 1.4 Trillion dollar budget the opposition will stop at nothing to take down the governing party, national security, peace in the middle east, freedom for millions or Iraqis be damned.

Over on Peach Pundit “landman” asks:
“The pressing question in this Primary,as sad as it is to say is HOW DID WE GET OURSELVES IN A POSITION TO HAVE SUCH A WEAK OVERALL FIELD?”

Laziness? Hubris? No one who would be worth a damn wants the job? To become a credible candidate you have to suck at the teat of lobbyists, rent seekers and big government nannys? The fact that with a war going on, and liberal entitlement programs about to bankrupt the government, people care more about who fathered the slut’s baby than who will be our next President?

Maybe its because our leaders make up bullshit issues like Global Warming, Gay Marriage or liquids on planes, rather than talking about real issues that can’t be reduced to a sound bite the average voter (or third grader) can understand.

Argh!!!!!

Bottom line, though, Keen said the Republican base doesn’t want to see Democrats hold the White House and Congress. “We can’t let that happen,” Keen said. “Conservatives want to win, too. The movement has matured. We want to retain one leg of the three-legged stool.”(source: Political Insider)

Glad to see the AJC acknowledge what i’ve been saying for awhile: George W. Bush has been one of the nations strongest Democratic Presidents.

The President has directed agencies not to accept earmarks from Congress unless they are encoded in statute. I’m not sure what percentage of earmarks are just strong-armed in by Congress critters, (vs officially appropriated), but Sens DeMint and Colburn and Rep. Flake seem to think this is a good thing, so I’ll defer to their judgement.

I will say this, Mr. President: It would have been nice if you did this before we lost the majority in Congress.

February 28, 2001: “In his first address to Congress, Bush likened his $ 1.9 trillion budget to a family budget…”

February 5, 2002: “President Bush yesterday proposed a $ 2.13 trillion budget for next year…”

February 4, 2003: “President Bush announced a $ 2.23 trillion budget for fiscal 2004 yesterday…”

February 3, 2004: “President Bush sent Congress a $2.4 trillion spending plan yesterday…”

February 13, 2005: “President Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget…”

February 5, 2006: “President Bush plans to propose a $2.7 trillion budget tomorrow…”

Today: “President Bush took aim yesterday at domestic spending as part of a plan to balance the budget in five years without raising taxes while increasing funding for the Iraq war and permanently expanding the military. With the $2.9 trillion budget he submitted to Congress…”

(source)

Any comment I make about this would likely involve an unpleasant run-in with federal law enforcement.