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Political Hay
Gina McCarthy and the Hell of a Ride Republicans
Jeb Bush, Obama’s EPA nominee, and the tie to Republican moderation.
(Page 5 of 5)
Which is to say, the Reagan and Bush models have now been separately road tested. Mr. Gerson got his way and now proposes — having helped toss the party in the dumper — to recommend more of the same.
Issues can change — or they can never change. Economics, after all, was as big an issue for Harry Truman and Tom Dewey as it was for Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Climate change, on the other hand, is relatively new.
But the moderate GOP approach is always the same: Concede the main issue to the left, tinker at the edges. Then sit back and enjoy a hell of a ride.
This is what the Bushie moderates are recommending in Commentary. Gee, isn’t it time for Republicans to admit that they can be, um, “hyper-individualistic,” they ask? Shouldn’t we just “acknowledge climate disruption” to show that we’re not “anti-science”? Can’t we signal that conservatives really don’t believe in a “closed society”?
Isn’t this what Jeb Bush has been all about in saying the GOP needs to get over Reagan “nostalgia” — as Reagan biographer Craig Shirley pointed out the other day over at Townhall? (Craig also notes there is no “Reagan panel” at CPAC this year. It is an excellent suggestion for next year.)
Which is to say, if George H.W. Bush set out to deliberately drop the Reagan agenda, and George W. Bush set out to do more of the same to move beyond what Gerson called “Reagan-era nostalgia” — is it not reasonable to believe that when the same words come from Jeb Bush that the GOP is setting itself up yet again for another presidential election disaster?
This is, it is critical to note, not about the Bushes. This is about moderate Republicanism and the unbelievably long and unbelievably feckless trail of political disaster it leaves in its wake.
The fact that someone like Gina McCarthy could even shadow the doorstep of a GOP governor’s administration, much less be appointed by a man who told his CPAC audience last year that he was a “severe conservative” — is symbolic of the GOP’s real problem. It says all you need to know about the intellectual bankruptcy of moderate Republicanism.
What the Commentary article is really about is writing the screenplay for another moderate Republican disaster. Revving up the limo — with Jeb Bush or some other moderate behind the wheel — for one more moderate-style “hell of a ride.”
For which no serious conservative should have “nostalgia.”
Photo: UPI
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (47) | Leave a comment
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bustunloose| 3.7.13 @ 7:59AM
So, you are shocked that a Norteast Govenor gives a green a seat at the table ? Be shocked he won in the first place. Jeb over Hillary ? One criteria can he get 270 or not ? If he won, he would not declare coal the enemey and put so many out of work, and destroy our energy base further. He'd talk about clean coal-tinker-so what ? Oh, and then we have this business about the hispanic voter that you ignore. Reagan would not win today, sadly, FDR would. That is the reality.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 10:10AM
Everybody's gotta slow down, on the whole Hillary Coronation. By the time 2016 rolls by, who's to say there's even gonna be a Country here?
Last I looked, the Halfrican's Billionaire Buddies were starting to Dump their Stocks. Kinda like in 29. First one. Then another. And another. Until word got out to Regular Folk, and then the Run on the Banks was off and running.
There's a BUBBLE out there, big as a Beach Ball, and when it Bursts - and it will - it'll make the last CRASH look like a Broken Taillight.
Bills come due. The Piper must be paid. Days of Reckoning have a Habit of Showing up after years of unchecked Folly, Foolishness, and a Failure to deal with Reality.
When that day arrives, who knows?
Hillary's might be one of the first Heads stuck on a Pike, and put on display in the Village Square, as a Warning to other Democrats. Stranger things have happened.
We have a Black Muslim Marxist President, with no I.D. No Paper Trail whatsoever. No Experience doing anything other than Occupying Bank Lobbies and Street Corners. His Mother was an Atheist Communist. His Father was a Muslim Marxist who died Drunk in a Kenyan Gutter, riddled with Aids, and you don't think that what I proposed has a Shot in Hell?
Please.
loulou| 3.7.13 @ 11:12AM
Obama has no intention of leaving at the end of his second term. There would be more damage to do and more perks to enjoy--he's not leaving.
Controse| 3.7.13 @ 1:24PM
Your right. He will only leave feet first.
Crassus| 3.7.13 @ 2:54PM
Hillary won't be around in 2016. Anyone taken a good look at her lately? The old fat witch will have melted away by then. Her liver can't hold out forever.
Petronius| 3.8.13 @ 11:02AM
T
I have some pikes in my garage. If you like, I can have the blacksmith forge an extra thick bodkin head for it and send it to you if you'll join my block.
Cheers
Larry E| 3.7.13 @ 10:45AM
Keep up this essential effort Mr. Lord. There are not a few who hope this whole brouhaha swiftly fades away. That must not be allowed to happen.
I was once again dismayed by the advice dispensed this morning on Bill Bennett's "Morning in America". A program which, by the way, I rarely listen to following his (Bennett's) head over heels man-crush on Romney and his own unprincipled attacks on those conservatives who opposed the Romney Juggernaut.
This morning we were treated to the "sage" advice of yet another Republican blaming "messaging" and "narrative" on last November's loss.
This is liberal gibberish. Messaging? Yes. We require an unambiguous, unapologetic and robust conservative message. Narrative? Yes. A narrative which simply addresses the historical success of conservatism and links it to the yearnings of most Americans. Period. Reagan won with such a simple strategy ... in two landslide elections.
Again, Jeffery ... keep the heat turned on and the light shining brightly.
OP4| 3.7.13 @ 8:20AM
I believe that even the disinterested voters who only tune in briefly every 4 years can sense the emptiness of moderate Republicans. The Mott Romney niceness just bored them to death. The McCain / Obama debates were the worst - they were arguing for the same things, McCain just wanted a little less of it.
American voters can sense the fire in the belly. Obama has it (for all the wrong things). By definition, moderate Republicans don't.
Von Mises Jr| 3.7.13 @ 9:43AM
I think we accept this narrative at our own peril. The GOP Establishment is not "moderate." They are "liberals." They are just not as totalitarian as the Democrat Party.
G.H.W. Bush was an Agenda21 enthusiast and elitist. His son, George W. Bush grew government from $1.8T to $2.93T or over 60% in eight years. These are not moderate Presidents, but progressives the likes of TR, Taft and later Nixon (price controls and ending the gold backed dollar) and Ford.
The socialist-lite Dole, McCain and Romney are "big government" statist. Dole was a pineapple, and McCain gave us McCain-Feingold and is always pushing amnesty, while Romney gave MA RomneyCare and believes in AGW. These are not "moderates." Universal health care and AGW are part and parcel of Agenda21.
The up and coming in the Party elite are Jeb who is a carbon copy of his liberal father and brother, and Chris Christie who attempted to pass Agenda21 in New Jersey by Executive Order. It is still advancing full speed ahead through the DOT, HUD and Freeholders.
If you want to know who these moderate Republicans are, watch Agenda21 YouTube "for dummies" and realize that they are all on board with this and climate change nonsense to control the lives and wealth of the Country Class. These are Ruling Class elitist.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 10:33AM
They're not even Liberals. You give them way too much credit, Mr. Never Comes to The Contest.
They are Weathervanes. They're Etchosketches and they're Silly Putty. When you see them being led around by one of their Political Handlers, you'd think you were watching the Westminster Dog Show, when they walk the dogs around the Arena, to give all the Judges a good look. They tell them to Sit, Stay, Roll Over, Beg, and Stick to the Talking Points. (Not the dogs. The Weasels)
Our Founding Fathers were the Greatest Assemblage of Great Minds since the Men who put a Man on the Moon and brought him back home, again. But they weren't Infallable. And we've been paying the Price for that Infallability, for most of our existence as a Nation.
They neglected to take into account the inherent weakness in Human Beings. They didn't take into account the Siren Sound of Money and Power, and the Desire that has been ingrained upon our Psyche since the beginning of Civiliztion, to RULE OVER our fellow man.
If they had just given us Term Limits?
We'd probably be driving Flying Cars, today, and living Healthy till we turned 150.
It wouldn't look like it does, now.
That's for Goddamn Sure.
Von Mises Jr| 3.7.13 @ 11:38AM
What credit do liberals allegedly deserve? I posit that the GOP is stupid like a fox.
Machiavelli was the first to publically treat friends and allies with the same strategy that had been employed in the past for enemies.
The "lion" would attack you while the "fox" would deceive. Obama and the totalitarians on the left attack like lions. I am simply warning to watch out for the foxes.
They are not "stupid" as "Boxer" was in "Animal Farm." They are all clever pigs.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 2:50PM
Watch out for the Foxes - everyone who was eating Pheasant Under Glass with President Death to America - indeed.
Von Mises Jr| 3.7.13 @ 3:09PM
You mean Elmer Fudd and his girlfriend Lindsey.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 4:02PM
Exactly.
Jack in Wi| 3.7.13 @ 8:26AM
Great essay Jeff: Who has been right here all along about what a Romney nomination would mean?
OP4| 3.7.13 @ 8:31AM
Pretty much everyone.
c. j. acworth| 3.7.13 @ 8:45AM
If Jeb Bush is nominated the Republicans should change the name of the party to "Stupid Party" and make it official.
C. Vernon Crisler | 3.7.13 @ 10:16AM
Agreed, the national Republican party will then go the way of the California Republican party.
Mike W| 3.7.13 @ 8:52AM
Dear Lord, please don't let Republicans fall for the nostalgia that Jeb Bush represents. Some Repubs think that even though W. was a catastrophic failure of a president, at lease he was elected. At least he did what it took to win.
Repubs yearn for a winner, even if that winner hates Americans (read reviews of Jeb's new book). Even if that winner wants to flood the country with a new people to replace the "lazy" current Americans.
Don't fall for Jeb.
JimP| 3.7.13 @ 10:07AM
Even if JEB gets the nomination he will lose, IMHO. As noted, many normal GOP voters stayed home last November. I can readily foresee even many more of them staying home if JEB is the nominee.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.7.13 @ 9:12AM
If I am understanding the subject of Mr. Lord's headline and first pages properly, it appears that the current POTUS has selected his nominee to head the EPA from one of Mitt Romney's Binders full of Women.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 10:38AM
Thou understandeth quiteth well, Sir Albert sitting on your can.
R Martin| 3.7.13 @ 1:09PM
I'm not so sure about that, Albert. Could we please have a chromosome test to determine that the person pictured on the home page lead-in to Mr. Lord's piece is, in fact, a woman. Geez, can't this regime find any feminine women?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.7.13 @ 9:17PM
Trim her facial hair right and she could be Tom Coburn's brother.
rjh| 3.7.13 @ 9:34AM
Thank you for an excellent, informative article, Mr. Lord. I have wondered why the establishment Republicans supported the only candidate the took obamacare off of the table. Apparently it is even worse than I thought. If the Republicans decide to run another Bush in 2016, I am certain it will be the end of the party, and, by that time, the end of our country with another Democrat/Communist administration.
Kwan| 3.7.13 @ 10:03AM
What a surprise America's number # 1 Enemy Barack Obama has decided to double down on this fraudulent climate-change hoax-a-rama. Has anyone with an IQ greater than their shoe size not figured out that Operation Climate Change is actually another leftist attack upon our economy. It's being advertised as necessary to save the planet, but its real purpose is obvious. The reelection of Obama must of convinced Obama's leftist handlers that stupidity was alive and well in America and that Obama was being given the green light to continue his "War on America". Maybe in his second term Obama can achieve what has been his goal all along, returning the country to the glorious days of the Great Depression.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 10:44AM
The Great Depression?
I'm thinkin that you mean: The Trail of Tears.
Petronius| 3.8.13 @ 11:06AM
What he really wants and won't admit is, 'final solution'.
Mike Daly | 3.7.13 @ 11:15AM
Romney didn't lose the election because conservatives didn't turn out to vote; he lost because Obama got lucky with a surge of the slacker vote that isn't sustainable. Citing that Gina McCarthy worked for Mitt Romney ignores the whole of Romney's record, which is quite conservative in his governance of Massachusetts via reigning in spending and the state's infamous hackerama - including being almost the one MA politician to stand up to (and take down) the bullying Billy Bulger.
The premise of this piece undersells the conservatism of Romney, the Bushes, etc.
Larry E| 3.7.13 @ 11:48AM
Mike, You've either no real concept of conservatism or you've no real knowledge of Romney's record.
Indeed, you're merely regurgitating the same worn and silly lies offered during the primaries and after the election.
Please ... think for yourself man.
Crassus| 3.7.13 @ 2:58PM
Oh, wow! Mittenz took down Billy Bulger. I guess that qualifies him for Sainthood then. GMAFB.
Moe Blotz| 3.7.13 @ 7:21PM
Is that you, Clint?
Dai Alanye | 3.7.13 @ 12:02PM
--> Mike D
The problem isn't merely that Romney and the Bushes were only half conservative. The bigger problem is that they were (and are) at least one quarter ANTI-conservative. Jeb Bush surely continues in this tradition.
Butch| 3.7.13 @ 4:28PM
. . . and, anti-conservative for entirely the wrong reasons: social ones.
Tom of the Missouri| 3.7.13 @ 8:54PM
"...one quarter"? If you watched Romney viciously attack all conservatives in the primary vs his non attack on Obama during the campaign, I think you would have to conclude that Rhinos are more anti-conservative than they are anti-Democrat/Liberal. Make it 75% not 25%.
Controse| 3.7.13 @ 1:37PM
Another great article Mr. Lord. Why, I would say your understanding of the political lay of the land is almost Limbaughish.
cicero| 3.7.13 @ 3:54PM
I agree with Mr. Lord's premise, but it is somewhat beside the point. The only way to nominate a true conservative to lead the ticket is to take over the Republican Party, and move the moderates out, or to form a conservative party that will replaced the current Republican Party. For any conservative to have stayed home because Romney wasn't conservative enough was inexcusable. Romney was clearly better for the country than Obama. Those were the only 2 choices on the ballot.
WhiteBikerTrash| 3.7.13 @ 6:25PM
My opinion:
Chris Christie and Jeb are the picked frontrunners of the Ruling Class Republican party. They are there to run interference in unison against any true Conservatives. The more Conservative candidates running the easier the job will be for the picked frontrunners. We will be left with a Republican nominee that at best will be Ruling Class Progressive that will proclaim himself a "Stalwart Conservative" The tactics of the game never changes until the players change.
hrgfue | 3.7.13 @ 7:52PM
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Bob K| 3.7.13 @ 7:55PM
Cap and trade! It will do essentially the same thing as Europe's Value Added Tax.
The Democrats and the big spending Republicans need it to get back some taxes from the more than 50% of the low information voters who pay no taxes at all and who receive various kinds of free money from the people who do pay taxes thanks to government policies. It won't be enough even though it hits the the people who ride in the wagon. It has to hit the middle class too, the people who are pulling the wagon! It's a great way to hide taxes from the dummy's who vote Democrat.
What the Republican party needs is a candidate who can articulate this message in a way that both the dummies and the Middle Classes of both parties will understand that it is an additional tax, and a hidden one at that, which will affect both Republicans and Democrats! And he will have to vow to veto it if it ever gets to his desk when he is President.
Tom of the Missouri| 3.7.13 @ 9:12PM
I know that people think it would be a disaster, but I really don't understand why conservatives don't simply leave the Republican party and start over as the Republican's once did to the Whigs. I truly believe the moderate Republican party leaders are truly not reformable. How many more losses with these guys are we going to take before we realize it is a lost cause? Just look at John Bohener and his quiet acquiescence to Obama's massive deficits with his continued passing of continuing resolutions and his crushing of conservatives in the house. He is in effect no different than the Obama administration. He is today's version of the old day's Bob Dole Republican who was once referred to as the tax collector for the welfare state. Bohner is the money printer for the welfare state or at least the enabler of it.
Tom of the Missouri| 3.7.13 @ 9:21PM
I love Mr. Lord's truth speaking articles, but when is it time to stop documenting the failures of the moderates and whining about that failure and start spending our money and our energy in a positive new conservative direction. Even if we get our candidate once again in 3 years, the moderates will once again stab us in the back every chance they get. Just look what McCain did today to Rand Paul. McCain is in true moderate fashion, completely restrained in his criticism of our destroyer in chief Obama, while turning all his venom on those in his own party with whom he disagrees. This is not unlike Romney in the last election cycle. Why on earth would I want to be in the party that upholds McCain as one of its leaders? These people will never see the light. We want their followers not the lost cause Rhino leaders. I think we need a new party with clearly stated conservative principles to attract them.
Tom of the Missouri| 3.7.13 @ 9:29PM
Correcction to the above: Bohner with his constitutional powers of the purse is the tax collector of the new Obama socialist state. We are beyond the welfare state. What Bohner and the Rhinos are doing is much worse than Bob Dole ever did. My apologies to Mr. Dole.
Tom of the Missouri| 3.7.13 @ 9:29PM
Correcction to the above: Bohner with his constitutional powers of the purse is the tax collector of the new Obama socialist state. We are beyond the welfare state. What Bohner and the Rhinos are doing is much worse than Bob Dole ever did. My apologies to Mr. Dole.
RJ| 3.8.13 @ 12:02AM
Great article. Thank-you Jeff.
Do you think Rick Santorum could have won the race if he won the nomination? In the primary debates, I worried that Romney not only didn't stand for anything, but that he couldn't defend himself well against the other candidates or the media. Santorum seemed to do a much better job of defending and projecting his positions and I thought he would do a much better job at connecting with most Americans. Romney, while a good man, struggled to connect.
Marc Jeric| 3.10.13 @ 12:37AM
I am mortally tired of those nice decent RINO losers. One hope this country has is Mullah Obama's pushing "green and renewable" energies (they do not exist) and the global warming scam, i.e., climate change flim-flam, i.e., cap & trade hoax: the names tell the tale.
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