George W. Bush and the Tea Party
Former President Bill Clinton, speaking yesterday at a Democratic fundraiser in Minneapolis, said that today's Republican "tea party" candidates--people like Christine O'Donnell--make even George W. Bush look like a liberal.
MINNEAPOLIS – Former President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that the Republican Party is embracing "ideology over evidence" and pushing out pragmatic voices that would make even his White House successor seem like a liberal.
Clinton, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Minneapolis, said there was no mistaking that Republicans have tacked hard right and questioned whether former President George W. Bush would fit in among the party's candidates this year.
"A lot of their candidates today, they make him look like a liberal," Clinton told an enthusiastic crowd at a downtown hotel as he campaigned for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton.
Clinton pointed to the tea party movement's influence on the GOP.
Clinton's remarks beg some important questions: how would Bush have handled (and perhaps rallied) the tea party movement? Would he have counted himself among them? Do the tea partiers "miss him yet"? Though the tea partiers are directing their energies right now against Obama and the big government democrats, they have also griped about Bush's own big spending habits in the past. Is Bush too liberal to be invited to the Tea Party?
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Jul '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
Uh..... "'The era of big government is over'...."
This Clinton?
Jun '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
How disingenuous, how much like Clinton the politician. Perhaps we should ask where Monica Lewinsky stands politically relative to the Tea Party movement. “How Would Monica Vote” might make a good bumper-sticker? This is just too rich: a moral illiterate, one who suborned perjury, a possible serial rapist, questioning a public outraged by the excesses of the political class. And this genius has the temerity to claim the country has veered from centre. Give me a break!
May '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
George W. Bush made it clear that he had political capital and he meant to spend it. The tea party seems to be mainly calling for spending cuts, and that is one thing that is incompatible with the tea party. One of Bush's decision points in his book will be the defense of his bailout of the financial system. I suppose the tea party would oppose this too.
The economy wasn't the main issue in 2003 as it was in 2008-present. I wish it didn't take disaster to wake up the American people, but as Churchill once said America always does the right thing last.
Jun '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
I think that if Bush had generated the kinds of mass resistance (to spending) that Obama is generating now, Bush would've changed course. Clearly, Bush wasn't concerned enough about profligate spending, but he wasn't wedded to it either. For him, letting Congress do it their way made everything else, like defense spending, easier to get. I assume, he thought a growing economy would fix the problem. Until 2007-2008, the deficits were getting smaller, not bigger.
Aug '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
"'A lot of their candidates today, they make him look like a liberal,' Clinton told an enthusiastic crowd at a downtown hotel as he campaigned for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton." Look, ol' Willie is greasy and all, and saying it as if it's a bad thing, but the guy has a point: Bush *was* too liberal for us. I sincerely thank Bush for keeping us safe, which is no small accomplishment, but other than that, I don't miss Bush at all. We did not need "Big Government Conservatism", if the term itself isn't an oxymoron.
Jul '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
We know how Bush would have handled the Tea Party.
The same way he handled Pat Toomey in 2004.
Let's face it, Bush was, in many ways, a RINO.
Edited on Sep 15, 2010 at 8:59pmAug '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
MFR and Kenneth are right. Now, may we please forget the specter of Bush already. Think positive.
Jul '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
Two words tell me all I need to know as to how Bush would have Reacted to the Tea Party.
Arlin Spectre.
Bush stopped Pat Toomey in his tracks and saw to it that Spectre was Re-Elected!
Jul '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
Absolutely not.
Because we still haven't learned the real lesson about Bush, which is that a RINO can win the GOP nomination by touting his "pro-life and traditional family values" creds, which mean, in a practical sense, absolutely nothing.
Bush did it. McCain did it.
Don't get fooled again.
Jul '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
I might add that the Tea Parties are as much a reaction to Bush as they are to Obozo.
The Tea Party are the folks that were calling talk radio in 2006 and telling the host, "The Republicans DESERVE to loose."
The Tea Party were the folks who were upset when McCain Feingold passed and Bush Signed it.
The tea party listened to the "sage advice" of the political gurus and went along with this better to win with a RINO than to loose nonsense and saw none of what they wanted to see accomplished because their elected representitives were too busy listening to the media to listen to the folks that elected them.
This time they have had enough and are taking control and putting the people they want into power. Win or loose, they will do what is right rather than expedient this time around. They've seen what expedient gets you.
May '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
In defense of President Bush, he was the one who proposed sweeping reforms to social security that would have saved the program - through free market principles - for the next generation and cut a huge swath through government obligations over the next fifty years. It was the tepid response from many moderate and/or self-serving Republican congressmen that killed his reform. These Republicans are the same individuals (or types of individuals) the Tea Party has targeted within the Republican party.
Aug '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
"Absolutely not. Because we still haven't learned the real lesson about Bush, which is that a RINO can win the GOP nomination by touting his "pro-life and traditional family values" creds, which mean, in a practical sense, absolutely nothing. Bush did it. McCain did it. Don't get fooled again." Kenneth, I very much fear that you're right. I like family values. I'm horrified by the masses of innocents slaughtered in the womb. But so many politicians seem to use traditional values as a get-out-of-jail-free card for accepting or even advancing the cancerous, deranged structural problems with our government that screw everything up, family values included. That said, Pat in Obamaland also has a point: Bush's desire to reform Social Security was something I could get behind. Question is, could Bush have been more adamant about reforming Soc Sec? Was he facing insurmountable pressure against reformation, or did he do the squishy thing and cave in when he could have won that one? I don't know.
May '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
Pat is right: Bush couldn’t win the Social Security fight because much of the party abandoned him when he needed support. It was a shameful moment for the GOP.
That said, Bush was never much of a conservative. He had conservative instincts on some issues, but was hardly driven by an overwhelmingly conservative ideology. I don't miss everything about the man, but I would much prefer to have him in the White House right now than President Obama--who has mucked-up the job up in a big, big way.
The RINO title is meaningless, though. You don't have to be conservative to be a Republican--being Republican is merely a matter of self-identification and the party is home to a wide variety of ideologies that have a few common points of agreement. There has to be some dissent, self-inspection, and a willingness to accept differences--at least, to some extent.
Somewhere between ideological purity and unprincipled pragmatism is a place where you can build the kind of coalitions that can govern well. The Tea Party is as much a reaction to GOP failures as it is to Obama's failures.
May '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
But, then, what do I know? The names that I have been called by people who are on my own side of the aisle are pretty close to as bad as the worst of what I've been called by the progressives. Accusations about my character--based on nothing but sheer speculation and a few policy disagreements--have bordered on the hilarious.
Well, hilarious if they weren't so personal, weren't so wrong, and weren't so willing to write me out of the party for not conforming to some other person's idea of political perfection.
Aug '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
The fact that Karl Rove is so outspokenly opposed to O'Donnell actually bodes well for the Republicans in November. It undermines the credibility of the idea that this is the party of Bush. When the senior "architect" of the Bush victories appears anti-Tea Party (aka anti- the emerging new Republican Party), it is difficult to paint the choice this November between "more of the same" and the "party of ideas".
I believe it will appear to most Americans that the party of ideas is the one electing all these candidates based solely on ideas and principles, not party politics or loyalty. I can see the Delaware Democrats' campaign add now, featuring Rove talking about how "he doesn't trust O'Donnell. How can you?" The response from many will be, " Well, I don't really like Rove either, so maybe she is alright."
In short, the Republican Party will do itself a favor in separating itself from Bush and Rove.
Aug '10
Re: George W. Bush and the Tea Party
addendum:
At least on some things...NOT on foreign policy.