At Conservative Forum on Bush, Everybody's a Critic

Cato Institute Panel Rips Bush Washington Post

[Former Reagan aide Bruce] Bartlett began by predicting a big tax increase "to finance the inevitable growth of government that is in the pipeline that President Bush is largely responsible for." He also said many fellow conservatives don't know about the "quite dreadful" traits of the administration, such as the absence of "anybody who does any serious analysis" on policy issues.

[Conservative blogger Andrew] Sullivan, author of the forthcoming The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It; How to Get It Back, called Bush "reckless" and "a socialist," and accused him of betraying "almost every principle conservatism has ever stood for." "This is a big-government agenda," Sullivan said. "It is fueled by a new ideology, the ideology of Christian fundamentalism." Sullivan further decried the "complete contempt" for democratic processes, torture of detainees, ignoring habeas corpus and a "vast expansion of the federal government." The notion, he said, that the "Thatcher-Reagan legacy that many of us grew up to love and support would end this way is an astonishing paradox and a great tragedy."

"If Bush were running today against Bill Clinton, I'd vote for Clinton," Bartlett served. "You have to understand the people in this administration have no principles," Sullivan volleyed. "Any principles that get in the way of the electoral map have to be dispensed with."