“You really hit the nail on the head for me when you talked about not watching Bush’s speech because you’re just sick of him. That’s how I feel too – I can’t believe we have to live with this guy as president for another 3 years and four months. This presidency has become like “In a Gadda Da Vida” – it goes on and on and on, and yet goes nowhere. I haven’t stopped being a Republican, I’ve just stopped being one who supports Bush. But just to be fair, I think he faces one serious political obstacle to deficit reduction that true conservatives aren’t acknowledging: if Bush tried to cut spending anyplace in government, do you think for one minute that Democrats, or their water-carriers in the media, would do anything other than portray him as a vicious monster desperate to throw the poor and the old into the streets? In fact, Bush’s response to Katrina last night – spend lots of money – is the natural Rovian response to the shellacking he’s taken for heartlessly letting so many suffer in New Orleans.
Yes, Bush is a clown. But I’m afraid the real death of conservatism occurred when Newt Gingrich overplayed his hand in the budget showdown with Clinton in 1995, thus making politicians terrified of ever again trying to reduce spending on any government program. You want to blame someone for our bloated deficit, Andrew? Blame us all, because as a country we are not willing to accept that we cannot spend any amount of money we want on government programs.”
The Dish 