The American Spectator

Mr. Hynes suggests that “a new departure” for the White House in dealing with Congress might be the application of a metaphorical stick in the form of deriding it as a do-nothing group. I suggest that a truly new departure for Mr. Bush would be to exert some domestic leadership and demonstrate some conservative principles.

It’s my belief that Mr. Bush’s electoral coattails were ridden by candidates whom the voters desperately believed might actually be able to lead him on a conservative path. Instead, Mr. Bush has persisted in his socialist agenda, pushing for alien amnesty and ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty, among other outrages. In return for Congress not pressing him to exercise some conservative leadership, he’s happy enough to sign all the bloated spending bills that find their way to his desk. It’s all very comfortable and convenient. No one can really accuse the Congress of being a “do-nothing,” after all, as it’s found creative ways to roll the pork barrel right over any disappointed voter who is left to howl in vain dismay at the betrayals.

If voter favor for a Congress person can’t be garnered by means of enacting conservative measures for lack of leadership, it can always be had by “bringing home the bacon” in time-honored fashion. Is it any wonder that the effective difference between the parties gets smaller daily? Likewise, radical leftist Democrats attract so much attention and power because the Republicans can be counted on to act like mainstream Democrats, without so much risk of runaway socialism. Would-be mainstream Democratic voters can feel safe voting Republican. Creeping socialism seems to carry the day in most of the country, and hard-core leftist enclaves still get their slice of the pie from such as Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy and their ilk.

I shudder to imagine the sort of stick that Mr. Bush might carry. It seems to me that he’d be more likely to use it in support of, say, illegal alien amnesty than Social Security reform. A recent instance I can recall offhand of his using his clout was to stump for Arlen Specter, and it’s no secret that Mr. Specter is hardly a conservative by any measure. Mr. Bush got his way, and just look at the actions taken by his shiny new Judiciary Chairman.

However, can that compare with the most recent debacle? It seems that Mr. Bush’s Justice Department, which has fought so vociferously for expanded Big Brotherism in the form of the Patriot Act, has at last “complied” with an order that it turn over documentation of Clinton Era misfeasance and malfeasance. To do so, it has produced documents utterly redacted save for the names of the writer and the recipient.

I can close my eyes and see the ghastly ghost of Janet Reno still astraddle the halls of justice. Well, one of Mr. Bush’s first public pronouncements upon his first election was that he’d “move on” from the darkness of the Clinton years. Who could have guessed that he’d do so by perpetuating that darkness? (And what’s up with his efforts to rehabilitate Clinton’s public image by naming him as “Tsunami Tsar,” or whatever it was?) Mr. Bush somehow can’t bring himself even to allow a stick to be applied to his presumptive political enemies! Who are his political enemies, really? How about Representative Tom Tancredo as a nominee? He should watch his back.

Political power in Congress is necessarily diffuse, and the Republicans have done a very ham-handed job of establishing any one charismatic and effective leader. What ever happened to Newt Gingrich, anyway? It seems to me that Republicans in Congress are in no hurry to seize the mantle of leadership and find themselves in the mainstream media crosshairs. Mr. Bush wears it by default and in support of his true agenda of creeping socialism and imperialistic adventuring. It pays off big time for the political classes, but, as usual, at the expense of the nation and especially those who long for a return to the Constitutional principles that made this a mighty nation.

I, for one, would like to see a metaphorical stick taken to Mr. Bush (and I stress the term “metaphorical,” lest some FBI e-mail scanner mistakenly suppose that I mean him any physical harm). Maybe it’s time to resurrect and remove the gag from the “Silent Majority.” Maybe it’s time for those of us who want our borders defended, for example, to amp up our communications to Congress, the White House and the media in voicing our beliefs and our desires.

It’s painfully obvious that leadership is not going to come from on high, although Mr. Tancredo is making a bold effort. Millions of squeaky wheels may get some grease and even overcome the mainstream media portrayal of America as fat, dumb, and happy; disinterested except in such things as teenagers’ unfettered right to abortions and the next episode of “Desperate Housewives.” At least, maybe we can flush out Mr. Bush and force him to show his true colors, whatever they may be. Maybe we can even empower a real conservative to dare to step up to lead the party into the next election.