
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Jan. 4, 2007
/ 14 Teves, 5767
Sell out?
By
Bob Tyrrell
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The story here in this great city is that President George W. Bush, leader of the vanquished Republicans, is reaching out to the triumphant Democrats on Capitol Hill. He has had meetings with their leaders. He greeted even their newly elected representatives and senators one being Sen. Jim Webb, who blew him off. This kind of friendly politicking has the president's Republican base anxious. Its rank and file fears a sell-out on tax cuts and perhaps on some social policies.
In a widely read opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal this week, the president wrote, "I have been encouraged by the productive meetings I've had with many of the new leaders in Congress from both parties. I am hopeful we can find common ground without compromising our principles." This kind of talk worries the Republican base and Republicans worry more when they see the president writing, "I believe we share many of the same goals for the people we serve and with good will … we can find practical ways to advance the American Dream and keep our nation safe."
What the Republican base might find reassurance in is that this is not a new Bush. He came to Washington believing in this sort of collegiality. He thought he experienced it in Texas with a Democratic legislature. He imagined he would experience it in Washington. My guess is that one of his greatest disappointments as president is that there has been so little consensus in Congress and so much partisanship. Business people around the president who aided in his nomination and election in 2000 say he did not accept the bitter partisanship of the Democrats until four years into his presidency.
This makes sense to me. Bush spent most of his adult life as a businessman, not as a politician. For about two decades, as Bush was working the private sector and the likes of Nancy Pelosi and the Clintons were politicking, a growing partisanship was overtaking politics. The Clintons and their cogenerationists were the main reason for it. It was the next evolution of the 1960s generation of pot and protest. Even the president's father, George H.W. Bush, has had trouble recognizing this. That is why he is so friendly with Bill Clinton. He simply does not recognize that Clinton is a total political animal and all this animal wants is to get reelected.
When the president says he believes that he shares "many of the same goals" and "good will" with the Democrats, he is probably right about many Democrats, but not about the dominant forces in the party over the last two or three decades. Their "goal" is for themselves to be endlessly reelected, and they cannot conceive of his "good will." The Clintons, Pelosi and others of their ilk do not really believe in the economic model of Bush and Ronald Reagan, though they have benefited from it. They do not recognize growth economics. What is more they do not recognize the threats to our national security and that force is the ultimate way to defend America. They believe in chatter at the United Nations and in some sort of world consensus that is utterly delusory.
But the president does believe in growth economics and in national security. He is going to give collegiality another try. But when he sees the Democratic leadership foisting on him policies that have already failed, I do not believe that he will accept them. It is, after all, his legacy that they will be tarnishing. More importantly, it is our country that they will be endangering.
Yet I may be overly optimistic. I think this is a resolute president with a grasp of policy, but maybe I am wrong. If so he must surely know this. The Republican base, now so apprehensive about his reaching out to the Democrats, has been the dominant voice in Republican politics for years. It is a major force in the country, if not the major force. It will not go along with what it calls "sell out."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Bob Tyrrell is editor in chief of The American Spectator. Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|