A Hand In the Bush

Okay, I was all set to have a nice relaxing evening, not work any more on my blog, and just kind of chill out. Then I read Mark Evanier's Blog, which I do several times a day because it's an awesome resouce (and right now seems to be acting as a nexus for Julius Schwartz information on the Internet). Today, ME linked to a story by Andrew Sullivan about Bush's appearance on "Meet the Press," which I'm sorry to say I missed. Although Jeff Grubb summed it up nicely - another exposed boob on TV.

There are two main points about the Sullivan story that interest me. First, Andrew is a fairly conservative fellow. We're not talking Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, foaming at the mouth nonsense conservative, but I'd place him up there with the likes of George Will - conservative and relatively thoughful about it. And in this article, Sullivan tears Bush a new anus. He is merciless, especially on Bush's treatment of "fiscally conservative" issues, which it's clear that Sullivan cares about. Economically, Bush isn't fiscally conservative. He's not fiscally anything except greedy, which Sullivan alludes to but never spells out.

Second, this indicates that there are gears in the conservative policital machine that aren't functioning as they should anymore. Thoughtful conservatives are beginning to realize that Bush isn't the answer. Now that we've dealt with the Clinton presidency and all the negative things conservatives attached to it, like Monica's dress, we're left with a very real problem and I think many of them realize they've been backing the wrong horse. And Bush is beginning to feel the heat. The Salon article I linked to below said he was nearly shouting Howard Dean-style about Democrats this and that. He may be able to get away with that in Springfield, Missouri, where he can beat a Bible and claim it's all better, but I think most Americans are getting fed up with the singing, dancing monkey.

In a strange way, this is renewing my faith that the American people can eventually make the right decision, and when faced with overwhelming stupidity, even the largest of patriotic suppositories seems kind of bad. And, when you don't have the negativity of the Clinton administration to carry you along, and you're left with a useless war, no weapons of mass destruction, no Osama bin Laden, and thousands of corpses to show for it, money and Karl Rove can only carry you so far.