The Dish

David Brooks and I debate what happened to conservatism under Republican rule. Both David and I agree that a coherent conservative governing philosophy has collapsed. But we deeply disagree about what to do about it. We have a big tussle over the legacy of Newt Gingrich and how to follow it. 

Become part of the debate by joining the book club for "The Conservative Soul." Details here. Amazon is now offering an extra low discount of 40 percent off the retail price. If you’re thinking of buying the book, you’d be nuts not to take their discount.

I can’t say I’m surprised he has dropped out. His inexperience in foreign affairs made his candidacy a non-starter, to my mind. So now we have the big guns: Gore, Clinton, Edwards, Kerry.

On the non-fiction list, "The Conservative Soul" has now reached the top ten books. I’m sure the 40 percent discount helped. Thanks so much.

Colonial Beach, Virginia, 2 pm.

"Some impose upon the world beliefs they do not hold; others, more in number, impose beliefs upon themselves, not being able to penetrate into what it really is to believe," – Michel de Montaigne, "Apology for Raymond Sebond", and the epigram for the fifth chapter of "The Conservative Soul."

The Dems have misunderestimated the macaca-bashing macher. His lead is still measurable and he won the last debate with Webb.

The picture of Mark Foley’s compulsive sexual harassment of pages is getting richer and deeper. Here’s more:

A former House page said he witnessed inappropriate contact between former Republican Congressman Mark Foley and another page in the back of the House floor in early 2001. The page, Richard Nguyen, a first-year student at the University’s Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, said he saw Foley pat a male page’s behind… "I wasn’t sure if it was a social norm I wasn’t accustomed to," Nguyen said. "I mean, you see athletes patting each other’s asses all the time on the field."

The use and abuse of religion is at the core of the corruption of the current Republican party. I know I’ve been saying this for a while now, but here’s someone who knows it from the inside. David Kuo worked for the Bush administration’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives from 2001 to 2003. Like John DiIulio, he realized eventually that it was all about politics and using the faith of evangelicals to maintain the political power of Republicans. Money quote:

[Kuo] says some of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders were known in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as ‘the nuts.’

"National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy,’" Kuo writes.

More seriously, Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office, and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly ‘nonpartisan’ events that were, in reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races.

According to Kuo, "Ken loved the idea and gave us our marching orders." Among those marching orders, Kuo says, was Mehlman’s mandate to conceal the true nature of the events.

Kuo quotes Mehlman as saying, "… [I]t can’t come from the campaigns. That would make it look too political. It needs to come from the congressional offices. We’ll take care of that by having our guys call the office [of faith-based initiatives] to request the visit."

Memo to faithful evangelicals: you get entangled with Caesar and you’ll regret it. Conflate politics with religion and you do mortal damage to both.

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty.)

"This morning my administration released the budget numbers for fiscal 2006. These budget numbers are not just estimates; these are the actual results for the fiscal year that ended February the 30th," – George W. Bush. You couldn’t make this up.

Libertarians are the new swing vote, according to a new study from the Cato Institute. Here’s the PDF. Money quote:

"Libertarians preferred George W. Bush over Al Gore by 72 percent to 20 percent, but Bush’s margin dropped in 2004 to 59-38 over John Kerry. Congressional voting showed a similar swing from 2002 to 2004," observe David Boaz and David Kirby. In House races, the libertarian vote for Republicans dropped from 73 percent in 2000 to 53 percent in 2004, while the libertarian vote for Democrats increased from 23 to 44 percent. There was a similar swing in Senate races.

"They are a larger share of the electorate than the fabled ‘soccer moms’ and ‘NASCAR dads,’" they write… "Conservatives resist cultural change and personal liberation; liberals resist economic dynamism and globalization. Libertarians embrace both. The political party that comes to terms with than can win the next generation."

I guess I’m not so ronery after all.