COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE

In terms of 2004, we're beginning to see that some of the places where Bush was thought to be strongest are turning out to be potential liabilities for President Whistle Ass.

First we find out from Newsweek that the public is turning on the Bush vision in Iraq.

Now, the New York Times has a piece outlining how Bush's so-called "compassionate conservative" agenda is falling mighty short.

At the same time, some religious supporters of Mr. Bush say they feel betrayed by promises he made as a candidate and now, they maintain, has broken as president.

"After three years, he's failed the test," said one prominent early supporter, the Rev. Jim Wallis, leader of Call to Renewal, a network of churches that fights poverty.

Mr. Wallis said Mr. Bush had told him as president-elect that "I don't understand how poor people think," and appealed to him for help by calling himself "a white Republican guy who doesn't get it, but I'd like to." Now, Mr. Wallis said, "his policy has not come even close to matching his words."

snip

Critics say the pattern has been consistent: The president, in eloquent speeches that make headlines, calls for millions or even billions of dollars for new initiatives, then fails to follow through and push hard for the programs on Capitol Hill.

From AIDS to AmeriCorps to education and beyond, this scenario repeats itself. They all take a backseat to top-heavy tax cuts and unjustified wars for Halliburton contracts.

This is the sort of thing that is obvious to anyone who's paying a decent amount of attention, but to those with only a casual eye on DC, or an inability to read past A1 in the local paper, such thruths are foreign. A Bush "compassionate conservative" proposal is akin to the discovery of those canvas-covered trailers in Iraq; a big roll-out in the State of the Union (like making a huge hoopla upon the discovery of the trailers), followed by a relatively quite unwillingness to pony up the funds required to show actual compassion (shh, the trailers weren't really weapons labs! put it on A17, paperboys!).

Dubya flack Joshua Bolten tries to cover his boss' ass, but winds up saying something a bit disturbing:

"Even the president is not omnipotent," Mr. Bolten said of the House opposition to the AmeriCorps money. "Would that he were. He often says that life would be a lot easier if it were a dictatorship. But it's not, and he's glad it's a democracy."

"often"??? Congratulations, Mssrs Bolten and Bush, you have undercut every wingnut who has tried to accuse the left of "moral equivalency" between Bush and, say, a former business business partner of his dad.