Frontpaged at Political Cortex.
Via BooMan and our own Georgia10, I see Bill Kristol is attempting to separate the failure of George W. Bush from conservative ideology.
BILL KRISTOL: I think it’s become in people’s minds an emblem of the administration that just isn’t as serious about the competent execution of the functions of government as it should be. And even — I’m struck talking to conservatives and Republicans — they agree with the president on basic political philosophy, the they agree with his basic policy agenda, but they are worried that they just don’t seem to be able to execute as well as they should be.
Kristol’s just the latest in a line of conservatives to claim that Republican policies didn’t fail Bush; Bush failed the Republican policies.
They cannot separate Bush from their movement, however. They can’t escape the monster they created.
Kristol is like the conspirator in a murder case: “Sure I drove Bush to the house, gave him the gun, advised him what to do, but I’m not responsible for the crime.”
The same is true of every Republican, conservative and neo-conservative that ever supported Bush.
They’ve got blood on their hands, and no amount of trying to wash the taint of Bush away is going to cleanse them of their shared guilt.
Bush gave them what they wanted and if they don’t like it, they should renounce their party and their ideology and seek forgiveness and to undo the damage they have done to their country and the world.
They wanted less regulation of industry and America got dead miners.
CRAIGSVILLE, W.Va. — In its drive to foster a more cooperative relationship with mining companies, the Bush administration has decreased major fines for safety violations since 2001, and in nearly half the cases, it has not collected the fines, according to a data analysis by The New York Times.
Federal records also show that in the last two years the federal mine safety agency has failed to hand over any delinquent cases to the Treasury Department for further collection efforts, as is supposed to occur after 180 days.
As John at AmericaBlog said:
This is Republicanism in action, folks. There’s no way to sugar coat it. You vote Republican, this is what you get – people who favor corporations over people. Republicans alway say they’re going to cut back on federal regulations, so no one should be surprised when they do.
snip
You vote for it, you own it. It’s time the American voter takes responsibility for his and her own vote. You elected these guys, and they’re doing what they told you they’d do. If you don’t like it, then stop voting Republican.
Bush didn’t fail the Republican policies. The Republican policies failed the American people.
Kristol and the Republicans should be handcuffed to George W. Bush to keep them from escaping what he has wrought.
Grover Norquist wanted tax cuts. Americans got the highest deficit in history.
Norquist wanted to drown the federal government in a bathtub. We lost an American city to flooding. And as people grew hungry and desperate, John McCain laughed and gave Bush cake.
The Republicans wanted less environmental regulations. We got melting polar icepacks and record-levels of children with asthma.
The Republicans wanted war in Iraq. Americans got dead soldiers, dead Iraqis, a broken military, an escaped Osama bin-Laden, high gasoline prices, lost national prestige and a rise in terrorism and anti-American hatred in return.
And the efforts by Kristol, Norquist and others to make Bush their Jonah should not be allowed to succeed.
Bush should be the stake we use to drive through the heart of their conservative ideology.
And once we drive the stake in, we need to chop off the monster’s head, stuff the mouth with garlic cloves, burn the body, grind the bones to dust and bury them deep in consecrated ground to keep this horror from ever rising again.
