-
SEQUESTER: The Horror!
March 1, 2013 | 4 comments
-
SOTU Preview: Human Props, Budget Fights, and Wedge Issues
February 12, 2013 | 0 comments
-
Hello, I Must Be Going
August 14, 2012 | 18 comments
-
Weekend Political Wrap-Up, Paul Ryan Edition
August 12, 2012 | 16 comments
-
Esquire Blogger Sees Paul Ryan, Shreds His Safety Net
August 11, 2012 | 13 comments
The Spectacle Blog
There is probably no dumber thing that Republicans could do than position themselves as defenders of George W. Bush going into the next election, which is what both Republican congressional campaign committee heads conveniently decided to do. Not only did Bush’s unpopularity and incompetence create the political conditions necessary to make Barack Obama and the Democratic supermajorities electable in the first place. A defense of Bush severely undercuts the conservative critique of the Obama administration’s economic policies.
Bush continued on the Clinton-era Community Reinvestment Act path of extending credit to the uncreditworthy. He advocated a loose monetary policy. While Obama’s deficits and spending have been far worse, Republicans cannot be taken seriously as a party of limited government if they endorse the spending and deficits of the Bush years, right down to the biggest new entitlement since the Great Society. It was Bush who signed into law the Obama-approved $700 billion Wall Street bailout, setting the stage for the bailouts and federalization that was to follow.
Obama is worse, but part of the same big government continuum as Bush. If Republicans are smart, they will disown everything about the Bush economic legacy except for the tax cuts. They should hope that John Cornyn and Pete Sessions’s comments are indeed just a case of Texas neighborliness rather than a broader trend.
kingfish | 7.19.10 @ 6:04PM
About time someone said this. Made this point on Redstate yesterday and got crucified as an Obama lover, no kidding. Bush and Obama's policies are only different in terms of degrees.
James| 7.19.10 @ 6:55PM
Its not about W bashing. Its about stating the facts. No politician should be protected or off limits from criticism because they may subscribe to the same party as we do. W wasnt conservative enough and him and his Repubilican boys led each other off the conservative highway. Its time we get the conservative train back on the track and not tie ourselves to fallible politicians rather strong principles.
Alan Brooks| 7.19.10 @ 11:19PM
"No politician should be protected or off limits from criticism because they may subscribe to the same party as we do."
This is propaganda, and no one will fall for it. You people will continue look out for your own kind and cover it up. Yet it is the right thing to do from a partisan perspective.
I'm only concerned you think we're all chumps who don't know what is going on.
Missy| 7.20.10 @ 12:15AM
Funny that an Obama knee-padder lectures us for being partisan. You liberals wrote the book.
neomom| 7.19.10 @ 8:44PM
I thought you were dead-on but came too late to the party to help out. GWB did some things right. Mostly right after 9/11. And I admire how he stuck to most of his convictions. But his fiscal and domestic policies stunk on ice. He spent too much time listening to the Alan Greenspan crowd and didn't push back hard enough when the Dems started obstructing his attempts to reign in Fannie/Freddie.
But the general Republican Establishment/Leadership couldn't find a clue if it were gift-wrapped and presented to them. Pat Caddell said much the same today on Hannity.
ditch Bush| 7.20.10 @ 7:23AM
Redstate is unfortunately a hysterical raving cult which does not allow any dissent from whatever orthodoxy the pack decides to dream up, including dissent to their right. Eric Erickson is the only one with any brains on that site, but he created that culture, I'm afraid. I blame it on Progressive education. It teaches kids to function as pack animals and submit to the group will. Totally different atmosphere at RS than other conservative sites.
Ken (Old Texican)| 7.19.10 @ 6:20PM
Old Texican VI here, Mr. Antle.
I am so sick and damned tired of Bush bashing I could puke.
Just imagine algore or kerry (uncapitalized) had won those two elections.
That being said, I do understand that the Bush family "noblese oblige" played into the hands of scoundrel communists, (pardon the shorthand), now in power.
OK fine!
Dubyah could have demanded and probably gotten a national mobilization similar to December 7, 1941 following 9/11...but he chose not to. His confidence in we Americans bled over into building a much larger economic pie for all of us.
His hoped-for policies would have kept building a larger pie...
privatizing part of Social Security...
Cleaning up Medicare...
Puting the finest army in history on Iran's doorstep...
Declaring the "axis of evil"...
Heck, we could afford his "compassionate conservatism" giving old folks medicine, and schoolkids a decent shot at an education worth two cents. "No child left behind" was a noble gesture, darn it!
Well, the bureacracies did him in. I am very sorry he did not see that coming. It worked well in Texas when he was governor.
Bottom line.....Dubyah just didn't quite grasp the corruption and crappiness of many other States.
He will regret that the rest of his life.
Margie| 7.19.10 @ 6:44PM
Such a great post, Ken. I for one do appreciate what you say about GW. The thing about these Nonnies, (non-interventionists & Libertarians in general)~ is that all they seem to live for and thrive on is bashing Republicans. They only want other nonnies to be considered "true conservatives"~ all others need not apply. They love labeling everyone but themselves as "Big Government".. just something I notice.
Let the vilifying begin.
Tim*| 7.19.10 @ 8:27PM
" Add former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott to the list of Republican tea party bashers. Lott (R-MS) held little back in a Washington Post interview that was published this weekend, drawing the ire of conservatives far and wide.
Lott told the Post that the tea partiers might not help with an already dysfunctional Senate. "We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples," he told the Post, referring to the current Senator from South Carolina. "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them." Lott also told the Post he is not expecting a "tea-party sweep."
DeMint has left the door open to challenge McConnell for the leadership position, and if his candidates like Rubio, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul and Ken Buck end up serving as senators, they are likely to have his back. "
Jim DeMint Is Our Tea Party Kingmaker Champ .
We'll Deal With Trent and The CINO-RINO's on November 2nd.
Margie| 7.19.10 @ 8:52PM
And what, pray tell does the useful idiot and liar Tim* reply to me for? Your fake phony fraudulent act is known to God. Strike a cord, did I?
'Nuff said.
Tim*| 7.19.10 @ 9:11PM
Ahh ! Apparently , I just tugged your chain .Sister Love.
We Tea Party Rebels Support Jim DeMint Our Kingmaker Champ .
We Remember In 106 Days.
Margie| 7.19.10 @ 9:47PM
Deceit.
While you have this phony Tea Party Rebel facade and pretend to be a conservative~ you constantly seek to discredit me. You cannot stand that I have you and your ilk totally pegged. You're a fraud and a liar. You don't fool me and you aren't fooling God.
A Taste of Tim*'s posts:
Tim*| 4.2.10 @ 11:34AM
Read: 51 Documents:Zionist Collaboration With The Nazi's by Lenni Brenner.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.2.10 @ 4:51PM
Tim*,
Wow, such highbrow books must keep you happy at night.
Heh, you want me to read a whole book by a bomb throwing Trotskyite?
Get real.
REPLY TO THIS
victor| 4.2.10 @ 5:38PM
Tim*:
"Lenni Brenner"
.. is an American Marxist Trotskyist writer.
All you need to know about Tim and why he would endorse and embrace such dregs of society.
And more:
Tim*| 4.20.10 @ 6:49PM
Now Margie ,You Slandering Slut !
My ilk is Tea Party Rebel ,while Your Ilk Margie ,is Israeli Firster NeoConservative Fanatic ,who attempts to slander anyone ,who dares to question The Foreign Nation of Israel's Agenda ans Uunited States National Interests in The ME.
Watch your Scummy Slandering Mouth ,Maniewoman.
And yet some more:
Gee Margie, Our Tea Party America First Agenda Trumps Your Israel Firster Agenda, Fascist Sweetie .
REPLY TO THIS
Tim*| 4.20.10 @ 8:38PM
Now Fanatical Neoconservative Israel Firster Margie ,are you disputing that America First trumps Israel First ?
You're Up Nutbag !
REPLY TO THIS
Margie| 4.20.10 @ 8:52PM
By their posts you will know them.
Tim*| 7.19.10 @ 9:54PM
Now Margie , tell all The AS Readers where you believe Deceased Practicing Jews And Deceased Practicing Muslims Go when they Die .
Margie| 7.19.10 @ 10:19PM
More deceit. Keep trying to discredit me with your phony implications.
I will not answer them.
Tim*| 7.19.10 @ 10:24PM
You're A Head Case Lady .
Missy| 7.19.10 @ 9:48PM
GWB and Obama are both Statists. Obama's worse, but I am no apologist for the RINO GWB.
Please!! No more Bush candidates for POTUS ever!
Alan Brooks| 7.19.10 @ 11:23PM
Old Texican defends Bush because they are both Texans. And the South is the worst part of the country.
Alan Brooks| 7.19.10 @ 11:30PM
As for Tim,
even if Israelis are what he alludes (and he might be correct) Israel is a better place to live than Dixie.
And that horrible Allman Brothers Band,
and Lynyrd Synyrd:
"Whats yore name, little girl, whatsyore name"
and
"I'm as freeee as a bird noooow, and its birds you cannot chase oo oo oo oo oh"
PCC| 7.19.10 @ 6:39PM
Mr. Antle is 100% correct.
Alan Brooks| 7.19.10 @ 11:38PM
"I am very sorry he did not see that coming. It worked well in Texas when he was governor."
In that case Bush is better than one might have thought he had been, Old Texican.
WRJonas | 7.19.10 @ 6:54PM
While I agree with some aspects of this article I find it very offensive to the point that the voters only had 3 choices . Bush, Gore and Kerry . I shudder to think about the prospects for our nation if these other two lunatics had succeeded .
Bush had his faults and compromising with Liberals was the worst of his faults .
Running the next campaign to defend Bush is a mistake but he is still an HONORABLE man and he did not discredit his country or office.
If Americans can't recognize that then we deserve another 4 years of Obama.
Bob K.| 7.19.10 @ 7:41PM
Fundamentally decent, but cautious; intellectually lazy, reluctant to take a stance on and fight for items of importance like McCain/Feingold. Always seeking a consensus instead of leading, and on and on. It is best to keep him in the background.
Missy| 7.19.10 @ 9:49PM
Poor Republican party standard-bearer, too.
Steve| 7.19.10 @ 7:46PM
Rear Mr. Antle
Thank you very much for you comment. Rest assured I will give them all the consideration they so richly merit.
Cris Worth| 7.19.10 @ 8:44PM
Just think...a non-conservative (Romney) is the front runner for the 2012 Republican nomination and another Bush (Jeb) is lurking in the weeds waiting his turn. When will the GOP ever learn? Sadly never.
PS
Think of the closet-liberal morons the Republican Party has appointed Senate Majority or minority leader since '80....Baker, Dole, co-opt Lott, Frist and McConnell. When will they ever learn? Sadly never.
Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 7.19.10 @ 9:20PM
You're absolutely right Cris. They say you can't fix stupid & The Stupid Party prove this statement true with every move they make. I just keep asking GOD for the right answers. I sure as hell know the spineless GOP don't have them. Just remember, with GOD everything is possible. With politicians everything bad is not only possible, but probable. Especially when they put their own craving of power over serving their constitutents. This goes for Republicans as well as Democrats. Take care Cris & GOD bless. He has the answers. Just keep asking Him for them.
Robert Pinkerton| 7.20.10 @ 7:32AM
Apologies for the digression, but I raise a point of procedure: Do we really need pingbacks? Just above this post are a dozen of them in unbroken succession!
Nate| 7.19.10 @ 9:18PM
W seems like Socrates himself when compared to Palin, Angle, Bachmann, Beck, and so on.
I started liking him as the country turned against. Him policies drove me up the wall, but I still like the guy.
The idea that W was liberal is just stupid; he was liberal only if you're willing to change the definition of the word "liberal."
Johnno| 7.19.10 @ 10:37PM
Liberal is just another word for Marxist.
You losers destroyed the meaning of the word long ago.
Nate| 7.19.10 @ 10:56PM
Saying "Liberal is just another word for Marxist" is like saying "squirrel" is just another word for "automobile," or "tree" is just another word for "goat."
In fact, Johnno, the words "liberal" and "marxist" can be defined. They're complicated words, and generally it takes a little work and education to get a handle on what they mean. But that doesn't mean it's not worth putting in the effort to figure it out. And no, Glenn Beck won't do your work for you. He's an entertainer. As a citizen, and as a man living in the modern world, you owe it to yourself and, frankly, everyone else, not to be so lazy.
Johnno| 7.20.10 @ 12:17AM
You've perverted the word "liberal"--it doesn't define you and never did. Fascist liberal is a better fit.
nohype| 7.19.10 @ 10:37PM
It always seemed that the logic of economics had no influence on the Bush economic policy, which was determined completely by political considerations. The Republicans must make sure they do not nominate another "big-government conservative" in 2012.
Nate| 7.19.10 @ 11:12PM
One of the oddest illusions propounded by conservatives is achieved by means of the metaphors of "small" and "large" government.
What is at stake is not the "size" of government -- which if you think about it is an absurd figure. Rather, what is at stake is whose interests the government is actively seeking to protect.
If you are arrested for a crime and cannot afford a lawyer, a BIG GOVERNMENT program will assert itself and see to it that you get one. That vastly increases your LIBERTY, and just the knowledge that you live in a society that will go to such extreme -- unprecedented and really unheard of -- lengths to protect you should the government accuse you of a crime increases your pursuit of happiness, i.e. the quality of life you enjoy by exercising your liberties.
That's one example, and I could offer many others, in which big government (and a belief in a living Constitution) extends the spirit of the Constitution to more people than the Founders had in mind (the project of liberalism generally).
Johnno| 7.20.10 @ 12:19AM
You're a Statist, pure and simple. There's nothing free about you, dumbtard.
Nate| 7.20.10 @ 12:38AM
Yes. I'm a "dumbtard." Scintillating wit you wield, Johnno.
Johnno| 7.20.10 @ 11:34AM
Interesting that you ignore being called a Statist, dumbtard.
nohype| 7.20.10 @ 4:27PM
"what is at stake is whose interests the government is actively seeking to protect"
Whose interests are being furthered by government funding of public defenders? You accept the government claim that it is all to help the poor. Being an economist, I suspect that more important is a powerful special interest group, the lawyers, who benefit from the program. Your response reminds me of Bush policy--it ignores economics and is heavy with idealistic public-relations spin.
Derek Leaberry| 7.20.10 @ 8:55AM
Let the name Bush, in all its forms- George HW, Barbara, George W, Laura and Jeb- be striken from the Republican Party. So let it be written, so let it be done. No family in American history has done more to destroy its political party than the plutocratic family of Bush.
Yosemeti Sam| 7.20.10 @ 9:25AM
Um, Bush has his - Faults!
However, from 2004 through 2008 - he was after all a Lame Duck President. Such, everybody under the Sun predicates of a 2-term Presidency.
Wow - what then, the POWER of a Lame Duck President. According to BHO and his minions'
characterization of Bushs' POWER.
Reminder: February 2007: the Democrat party TOTALLY controls our bicameral Congress - to date!
February 2007: hmmmm, a 4.6% unemployment - BENCHMARK!
February 2007: of note Senator Dudd becomes chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
February 2007: of note Pelosi becomes HR Democrat - ramrod!
February 2007: of note Rangel becomes Chairman, House Committee on Ways and Means. He-he.
February 2007: of note Frankfurter becomes House Financial Services Committee Chairman.
How gay for him.
Mental Democrat giants - all!
Yo, yeah, sure, notwithstanding the factual context above - Leftoids and their lactose allies (PEN1) in the LBSM propagandize it's all Bushs' massive paws on Americas' economy that ushered in our status quo creeping economy.
It's 'progressively' turning out to be a Sisyphean effort on the Leftoids' agenda though.
Can't fool all the PEOPLE all the time! Even Rip Van Winkle - woke up at some point!
Fascinatingly: just follow along with this arithmetic - 4.6% to the now flux-massaged 9.5%.
Why - that's a 200% increase in unemployment since the Democrat party took over complete reins of our bicameral Congress! And BTW, don't make me laugh that Bernie and Loserman
are independents.
It's quite apparent the Democrat party and their lactose allies (PEN1) in the LBSM ever hope to yoke America's economic ills on their apple of one’s eye portrayed yokel - Bush.
Yet - who were/are in relative continuum charge and facilitating the financial CRASH preceding BHOs' enthronement?
Bush - Lame Duck; moreover back seat driver of
Americas' economy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wax on Lame Democrats - on who was in the Drivers' seat!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yet this turkey in the Peoples' White House speaks turkey-speak of Bush.
LOL.
Dumkopf Leftoids!
They are crossing the Rubicon of VOTER credulity!