Salon: The conservatives are outraged -- about Bush

[La_Serpiente]

Need a free day pass

The conservatives are outraged -- about Bush

Jan. 27, 2004 | CRYSTAL CITY, Va. -- Razor-tongued right-wing darling Michelle Malkin stood before a cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday and denounced George Bush's new immigration policy. Her voice oozing contempt, she described Bush as "Clintonian" for claiming to oppose amnesty in his State of the Union speech. She held up an orange sign with Bush's words, "I oppose amnesty," written on it. Then she ripped it up and roared, "What part of amnesty doesn't he understand?"

This year's CPAC, an annual conference that's ground zero of the vast right-wing conspiracy, pulsated with the usual antipathy toward liberals, gays, secular judges, environmentalists and Europeans. Yet many attendees also bristled with a more uneasy anger, one directed at their erstwhile allies in the White House. Conservative activists, especially older ones, felt betrayed and disappointed by Bush's immigration policy, his expansion of the federal government and his promiscuous spending, so much so that some suggested the grass-roots right might stay home on Election Day. There were plenty of passionate Bush fans in attendance, most of them college students, but movement leaders and veterans spoke of them with outright contempt. One right-wing pollster called them "Bushlickers."

This year's CPAC, in fact, was more encouraging for liberals than conservatives. Bush's right-wing base is demanding more concessions than he's made so far, but those concessions are likely to erode whatever moderate support the president has. At one of the most fervently Republican gatherings in the country, it wasn't hard to find people who were planning to vote for third-party candidates from the Constitution or Libertarian parties, and a few even confided in whispers that they might vote for Joe Lieberman or John Edwards if given a chance. The mood was like that of liberals in 2000 who saw Al Gore as nothing more than a lesser evil and yearned to send a futile message through Ralph Nader. While the grass-roots left is more motivated and disciplined than it's ever been, the grass-roots right has turned sullen and uncompromising.

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The conservatives are outraged -- about Bush

Need a Free Day Pass

How Ironic

[patricia92243]

1. When Bush sees it as apolitical liability, it will go away.

[DarkPhenyx]

2. It's nice to see them self-destructing....

...instead of us for a change. Normally this kind of public infighting is the perview of the Deomcratic party.

[izzie]

4. I love to read Free Republic as they really get mad at each other.

You are either a Republican 100 percent or you may as well jump off a bridge.Right of wrong he is their man and I see real hate to wards people that voice some thing they do not like. Over here we are all over the place. To tell you the truth I posted over their for a long time with stuff I did not go along with just to see if they would put up with it. Some did a little as I did it in an American way. Always bring it back to what they wanted at the start of out country and it left them with nothing to fight about. I was not asked to leave I just stopped doing it, but it was fun. Also that, some would see it my way if worded in the correct terms. I do think they are getting wild that Bush really is not a Conservative.

[girl gone mad]

3. This is why..

A Kerry nomination is a lost opportunity.