March 12, 2008
Second Amendment follies
As the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in the most significant Second Amendment case in recent history, Robert Novak details the typical left-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-right-is-doing incompetence at the White House, where Vice President Cheney signed a brief -- backed by Pres. Bush -- opposing the position of the administration's Solicitor General.
The government position filed with the Supreme Court by U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement stunned gun advocates by opposing the breadth of an appellate court's affirmation of individual ownership rights. The Justice Department, not the vice president, is out of order. But if Bush agrees with Cheney, why did the president not simply order Clement to revise his brief? The answers: disorganization and weakness in the eighth year of his presidency.
Consequently, a Republican administration finds itself aligned against the most popular tenet of social conservatism: gun rights, which enjoy much wider agreement than do opposition to abortion or gay marriage. Promises in two presidential campaigns are being abandoned, and Bush finds himself to the left of even Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.
What a mess. Novak says that Bush hesitated to act because of Democratic pressure to keep his hands off of the Justice Department.
I love the smell of weak executive in the morning. It smells like ... defeat.
Is there no end to the ineptitude?
Posted by Mike Lief at March 12, 2008 05:48 AM
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Mike,
Although you support the war effort its time to stop drinking the Republican Party Cool-Aid and admit that Bush is no conservative. Fiscally, he is a disaster. Border security - a disaster.
On foreign policy, I can think you can make a strong argument that he's a disaster by launching preemptive war based on weak evidence even if you believe that the US must now prevail. I do not believe that Reagan would have invaded Iraq. I believe that Reagan would have finished the job in Afghanistan with a massive use of force. This Neo-conservative view seems more like hawkish liberalism to me. It's a weird attempt to remake the world in our own image, something that the realistic Republicans of old would have never advocated.
Now it comes to gun rights and you are surprised?
Posted by: Bill H at March 14, 2008 03:08 PM
Bill,
When did I start drinking the Kool-Aid? I've been talking about how Bush (and the GOP) are a constant source of disappointment to conservatives on issues large and small.
Illegal immigration, anyone?
And note the last sentence of my post:
Is there no end to the ineptitude?
The "is there no end" part refers to all the previous and on-going ineptitude, liberal social engineering and other tomfoolery that hides in the margins of whatever-the-hell "Compassionate Conservatism" is supposed to be.
Bubba, I ain't one of the lock-step Bush followers.
I am, however, one of the conservative independents who still believe that Bush was a better choice than Kerry or Gore. Surely, on that issue, you cannot disagree.
However awful Pres. Bush has been, can we at least agree that Junk Science Al and Hanoi John would have been much, much worse?
After all, the elections are rarely about supporting the perfect candidate; for me, at least, they usually devolve to voting against the guys that are too horrible to contemplate in office, leaving the least craptastic candidate as the default winner.
Back to you, Bub.
Posted by: Mike Lief at March 14, 2008 04:05 PM
Do you honestly think the last eight years would have been WORSE if Al Gore and his peace prize had won the election in 2000???
Our economy is collapsing. Oil is a bazillion doallars a barrel. We are in the middle of a trillion dollar an hour war with no plan to get out. Nobody can afford health care if they are not working for a large company. The world thinks we are a bunch of bullies. I am not blaming any of this entirely on Bush, but I cannot see what the difference is...
What exactly would have been worse?
Not only do I blame George Bush for getting us in a mess in Iraq, I blame him for destroying the credibility of the republican party. I look in the mirror every day and regret my vote in 2000 and 2004.
Posted by: RW at March 16, 2008 10:19 PM