Who Needs Liberals When Conservatives Will Do

Finding actions by the Bush Administration that are egregious, mean-spirited, misleading, and just plain wrong is an everyday occurrence. However, I realize that most of my sources are Democratic, or if you insist “liberal”. But we are not the only ones according to Dana Milbank in today’s Washington Post. Here are some extracts of comments from a forum conducted by the very conservative Cato Institute.

The first speaker, former Reagan aide Bruce Bartlett, author of the new book "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," called the administration "unconscionable," "irresponsible," "vindictive" and "inept."

Speaker No. 2, conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, author of the forthcoming "The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How to Get It Back," called Bush "reckless" and "a socialist," and accused him of betraying "almost every principle conservatism has ever stood for."

Bartlett … began by predicting a big tax increase "to finance the inevitable growth of government that is in the pipeline that President Bush is largely responsible for." He also said many fellow conservatives don't know about the "quite dreadful" traits of the administration, such as the absence of "anybody who does any serious analysis" on policy issues.

Sullivan was on hand to second the critique. "This is a big-government agenda," he said. "It is fueled by a new ideology, the ideology of Christian fundamentalism." The bearded pundit offered his own indictment of Bush: "complete contempt" for democratic processes, torture of detainees, ignoring habeas corpus and a "vast expansion of the federal government."

"If Bush were running today against Bill Clinton, I'd vote for Clinton," Bartlett served.
"You have to understand the people in this administration have no principles," Sullivan volleyed. "Any principles that get in the way of the electoral map have to be dispensed with."

"The entire intellectual game has been given away by the Republican president," said Sullivan. "He's a socialist in so many respects, a Christian socialist."

Bartlett argued that Richard Nixon "is the model for everything Bush is doing." Sullivan said Karl Rove's political strategy is "pathetic." Bartlett said that "the administration lies about budget numbers."

"He is not a responsible human being; he is a phenomenally reckless human being," Sullivan proclaimed. "There is a level of recklessness involved that is beyond any ideology."