WisPolitics Budget Blog

Conservatism -- to misquote Hamlet to his friend Horatio -- dear conservatism, I, I am dead.

George W. proved to us movement conservatives that the New England/Yale/Bush family bloodline of Rockefeller Republicanism was a stronger impulse than the West Texas/bootstrap/Ronald Reagan imagery we were coaxed into believing.

It was all a fraud.

Call it friendly fire; call it the mastery of Karl Rove, but conservatives have been mortally wounded. Forget 2006. We'll lose House and U.S. Senate seats. Gerrymandered House seats (such as the cockeyed WI-1 and WI-2 seats) will keep Republicans in control of both, but it will limp along as an empty majority.

Forget 2008. The White House is gone; Hillary will win; she's bigger than her Party, she'll say what she must to middle America and win, maybe, 20% of the 2004 Bush vote. Look at any big-name pollster's crosstabs, and it isn't too tough to see where erosion is likely to occur. Add-in a rabid base, on a scale that George W's Party enjoyed in 2004, and conservatives should prepare for an extended camp-out in the political wilderness.

What have we done with this 2-term Presidency? What have we passed, with this congressional majority? Did we offer voters a national debate on taxation, beyond the slogan, Keep the Tax Cuts Permanent? Did we use our power as the world's only military superpower wisely? Did we change the business of Washington, DC, or is Tom Delay, Ralph Reed, and Grover Norquist only in it for the money, as is every other K Street lobbyist?

What's next?

A good first step is for those 27 Republican U.S. Senators who wanted something more than a crony appointment to join with those 23 Democrats who voted against Justice John Roberts and sink the Harriet Miers confirmation.

Then, force the President to dust-off a Scalia, a Thomas, a Bork, and lets have a genuine debate on the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in the lives of every day Americans.

While we're at it, Mr. President, dust-off those plans to bring the troops home.