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Give Bush a Break
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01/18/07 11:55 AM ET
It’s hard to watch anyone get kicked when they are down, especially when the kicking comes from friends. Conservative activists, whose fury has now burst from a simmer before the election to a full-scale boil, are now giving Bush the out-of-the-closet, on-the-record beating they have resisted for so long.
The president’s choice of Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) to chair the Republican National Committee — note he is from a battleground state, and a Latino with a moderate position on immigration who can help the party repair damage with Hispanic voters in time for ’08 — is getting pummeled by the party faithful who believe he supports amnesty and are threatening legal action against his chairmanship.
And the news of Bush’s decision to dramatically reverse course and release the NSA surveillance program to the FISA court has stunned his own supporters and led them to wonder if he only went to bat for NSA so forcefully because Vice President Dick Cheney was waterboarding him. The Washington Post quoted a conservative writing on the National Review website who said Bush’s surrendering of a program that he has consistently argued was critical to national security was disgraceful. “The administration is repudiating all the arguments it has made in testimony, legal briefs, and public statements.”
Perhaps, yes. But give the guy a break.
The president’s choice of Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) to chair the Republican National Committee — note he is from a battleground state, and a Latino with a moderate position on immigration who can help the party repair damage with Hispanic voters in time for ’08 — is getting pummeled by the party faithful who believe he supports amnesty and are threatening legal action against his chairmanship.
And the news of Bush’s decision to dramatically reverse course and release the NSA surveillance program to the FISA court has stunned his own supporters and led them to wonder if he only went to bat for NSA so forcefully because Vice President Dick Cheney was waterboarding him. The Washington Post quoted a conservative writing on the National Review website who said Bush’s surrendering of a program that he has consistently argued was critical to national security was disgraceful. “The administration is repudiating all the arguments it has made in testimony, legal briefs, and public statements.”
Perhaps, yes. But give the guy a break.
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