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Conservative pundit George Will continues his ‘poison pen’ assault on
the faux conservatism of the Bush
crowd, now that Reagan’s 11th Commandment* – thou shall not speak
ill in pubic of a fellow Republican – has been broken by the Miers nomination. - kwc On K
Street Conservatism By
George F. Will, Newsweek, Oct. 17, 2005 Issue For a few conservatives,
the accumulation of discontents may have begun building toward today's critical
mass in December 2001 with the No Child Left Behind law, which intruded the
federal government deeply into the state and local responsibility of education,
grades K through 12. That intrusion has been accompanied by a 51 percent
increase in the budget of the Education Department that conservatives once
aspired to abolish. The accumulation
accelerated in December 2003, when the Republican House leadership held open for three hours the vote on adding a
prescription-drug benefit to Medicare. The time was needed to browbeat enough
conservatives to pass the largest expansion of the welfare state since LBJ—an
entitlement with an unfunded liability larger than that of Social Security. The
president's only believable veto threat in nearly five years was made to deter
an attempt to cut spending by
trimming the drug entitlement. Agriculture subsidies
increased 40 percent while farm income was doubling.
Conservatives concerned about promiscuous uses of government were appalled when
congressional Republicans waded into the Terri Schiavo tragedy. Then came the
conjunction of the transportation bill and Katrina. The transportation bill's
cost, honestly calculated, exceeded the threshold that the president had said
would trigger his first veto. (He is the first president in 176 years to serve
a full term without vetoing anything. His father cast 44 vetoes. Ronald
Reagan's eight-year total was 78.) In 1987 Reagan vetoed a transportation bill
because it contained 152 earmarks—pork—costing $1.4 billion. The bill President
Bush signed contained 6,371, costing $24 billion. The total cost of the
bill—$286 billion—is more, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than the combined costs of the Marshall Plan and
the interstate highway system. With Katrina,
"nation building"—a phrase as sensible as "orchid
building," and an undertaking expressive of extravagant confidence in
government—has come home. It is one thing to invoke, as Reagan frequently did for
national inspiration, the Puritans' image of building a "shining city upon
a hill." It is another thing to adopt the policy of rebuilding a tarnished
city—it was badly tarnished even before
the inundation—that sits below sea level. Could Katrina's costs
be paid by budget cuts, perhaps starting with $24 billion of transportation
earmarks? No, said the then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay—"The
Hammer"—because Republicans have cut all inessential spending. With that,
critical mass became explosive. The indictments of
DeLay—although certainly political in terms of the prosecutor's motive and
probably unjust as a matter of law—are, considered solely in terms of their
consequences, helpful to conservatives. DeLay, who neither knows nor cares any
more about limited government than a camel knows or cares about calculus,
probably will never return to the House leadership, and might even be voted out
of the House in 13 months. When hammered, people
can become as flattened as veal scaloppine, or can become angry. Conservatives'
anger forced Speaker Dennis Hastert to abandon his highhanded attempt to name
California Rep. David Dreier as DeLay's chosen placeholder. Missouri Rep. Roy
Blunt, who was named instead, will not relish turning into a pumpkin if DeLay
returns. Besides, 50 Republican members can force leadership elections—what a concept—and are apt to do
so in January. Furthermore, in 2004 DeLay won with an underwhelming 55 percent,
running nine points behind President Bush in his district. DeLay is exhibit A for
the proposition that many Republicans have gone native in Washington. Indiana
Rep. Mike Pence, leader of the more than 100 conservative members of the
Republican Study Committee, charges that some Republicans think "big
government is good government if it's our government." DeLay's troubles,
and his party's, may multiply with coming revelations about the seamy career of
uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He
is emblematic of DeLay's faux conservatism—K Street conservatism. That is
Republican power in the service of lobbyists who, in their K Street habitat,
are in the service of rent seekers—interests eager to bend public power for
their private advantage. Since 2000 the number
of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled, from 16,342 to
34,785. They have not been attracted to the seat of government, like flies to
honey, for the purpose of limiting government. Conservatives are not
supposed to be cuddly, or even particularly nice. They are, however, supposed
to be competent. And to know that scarcity—of money, virtue, wisdom,
competence, everything—forces
choices. Furthermore, they are supposed to have an unsentimental commitment to
meritocracy and excellence. The fact that none of those responsible for the
postwar planning, or lack thereof, in Iraq have been sacked suggests—no,
shouts—that in Washington today there is no serious penalty for serious
failure. Hence the multiplication of failures. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9629463/site/newsweek/ * By the way, the Washington state Republican party has ended its own
formal support for the Reagan 11th Commandment, enforced by a very real
$500 fine, which shows this has been taken quite literally within the GOP for
decades. It seems that there is some discontent about unqualified candidates and
incompetence in office at the state level, as well as nationally. Given that the Republicans are having a
wee bit of trouble recruiting new candidates to run in 2006, this is another
sign of a party being split by the same folks who claimed they were uniters,
not dividers. |
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