I sometimes get the sense that Duhbya and conservatives of all stripes (from neo- to paleo-) are finally parting company. You can’t blame conservatives: Duybya has effectively destroyed their political chances, quite possibly for a long time to come. Duhbya, in turn, may realize the conservatives give him nothing now and by pretending to be the guy he pretended to be in 2000 (the compassionate uniter, not the indifferent divider he truly is), he might trick Democrats into giving him something that seems to offset his legacy of incompetence and shame.
As the World Warms, the White House Aspires, By Dana Milbank
Yesterday, as the temperature pushed toward 90 degrees in the capital, global warming caused a meltdown in the Bush administration’s message machine.
Just as President Bush was about to wheel out his “new international climate change framework,” the NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, declared that there is no need to take action against global warming.
“Whether that is a long-term concern or not, I can’t say,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio, adding: “I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.” In fact, Griffin found it “rather arrogant” to suggest that global warming is a bad thing.
A couple of hours after the broadcast, Griffin’s boss took the stage at the Ronald Reagan Building to endorse just such arrogance — an initiative aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. “The United States takes this issue seriously,” Bush said.
This mixed message led to a rather cool reception for Jim Connaughton, the president’s adviser on the environment, as he briefed reporters on the plan at noon.
“Will the new framework consist of binding commitments or voluntary commitments?” asked CBS News’s Jim Axelrod.
“In this instance, you have a long-term, aspirational goal,” Connaughton answered.
Aspirational goal? Like having the body you want without diet or exercise? Or getting rich without working?
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OpinionJournal – Peggy Noonan
Too Bad President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder.
What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.
The White House doesn’t need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don’t even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place. [mjh:Damn, I misunderestimated Duhbya. I thought he was stupid and heartless, but it was just a con!]
For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. [mjh: Official GOP disclaimer: the GOP does not believe “battered wife syndrome” exists and supports traditional family values, including god’s own plan for wifely subservience and the need for a husband to occasionally assert his unquestionable authority.] …
Bush the younger came forward, presented himself as a conservative, garnered all the frustrated hopes of his party, turned them into victory, and not nine months later was handed a historical trauma that left his country rallied around him, lifting him, and his party bonded to him. He was disciplined and often daring, but in time he sundered the party that rallied to him, and broke his coalition into pieces. He threw away his inheritance. I do not understand such squandering.
Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it’s time. It’s more than time. [mjh: Official GOP disclaimer: the GOP does not believe “psychology” and other liberal excuses for bad behavior.]
It’s fascinating to watch the self-professed “deep-thinkers” of the “party of ideas,” “the moral and silent majority” that in 2004 declared their victory would last a generation — to watch that party fall apart, long-knives flying. Couldn’t happen to a better group. Too bad the whole world is on the brink of destruction. mjh