Peggy Noonan sounds less than completely enamoured of her erstwhile paramour:
The headline lately is that conservatives are stiffing the president. They’re in uproar over Ms. Miers, in rebellion over spending, critical over cronyism. But the real story continues to be that the president feels so free to stiff conservatives. The White House is not full of stupid people. They knew conservatives would be disappointed that the president chose his lawyer for the high court. They knew conservatives would eventually awaken over spending. They knew someone would tag them on putting friends in high places. They knew conservatives would not like the big-government impulses revealed in the response to Hurricane Katrina. The headline is not that this White House endlessly bows to the right but that it is not at all afraid of the right. Why? This strikes me as the most interesting question.
Here are some maybes. Maybe the president has simply concluded he has no more elections to face and no longer needs his own troops to wage the ground war and contribute money. Maybe with no more elections to face he’s indulging a desire to show them who’s boss. Maybe he has concluded he has a deep and unwavering strain of support within the party that, come what may, will stick with him no matter what. Maybe he isn’t all that conservative a fellow, or at least all that conservative in the old, usual ways, and has been waiting for someone to notice. Maybe he has decided the era of hoping for small government is over. Maybe he is a big-government Republican who has a shrewder and more deeply informed sense of the right than his father did, but who ultimately sees the right not as a thing he is of but a thing he must appease, defy, please or manipulate. Maybe after five years he is fully revealing himself. Maybe he is unveiling a new path that he has not fully articulated–he’ll call the shots from his gut and leave the commentary to the eggheads. Maybe he’s totally blowing it with his base, and in so doing endangering the present meaning and future prospects of his party.
Sometimes, the degree to which I am beyond these slow-witted commentating cretins actually unsettles me. I mean, I only told this to every starry-eyed Republican I knew back in 2000 back when Bush first unveiled his Compassionate Conservative snake oil. (I realize you’ll have to take my word for this, as I wasn’t writing columns until the autumn of 2001, but trust me, I’ve always loathed and distrusted the guy.) And then again, in 2004.
It’s been like watching the WWII-era Germans gobble up small European countries. “The Reichkanzler says he’s going to invade Austria… he’s not REALLY going to invade Austria… he wouldn’t ever invade Austria… oh, he invaded Austria… he says he’s going to invade Poland, but he can’t possibly invade Poland… oh dear, now he invaded Poland!”
Morons.
And yes, I am feeling a wee bit short-tempered today, actually. Not because of Ms Harriet Cryptkeeper, but because I’m under the metaphorical weather.
PS – If she gets on, someone simply has to release a Women of the U.S. Supreme Court swimsuit calendar. I’m not sure who is scarier, the half-shrunk Wicked Witch or Creepy McCrypto. Throw in Janet Reno and Helen Thomas and you’ve got yourself a party.
PPS – And yes, it’s good to see the Last Republican Conservative, Ann Coulter, performs exactly as one expected in ripping the both Dear Leader and his “trust me” theme to tattered shreds.