Republican Euthanasia

"As someone who has been highly critical of George W. Bush’s repeated violations of conservative principles for some years, last week brought some vindication. His endorsement of an immigration reform bill that is widely viewed as offering de facto amnesty for illegal aliens seems to have finally gotten to many of those who have defended him down the line and attacked people like me as conservative turncoats. They now realize what I figured out three years ago: he ain’t one of us.

For me, the tipping point was the Medicare drug bill, which was rammed through Congress in the dead of night just hours after a conference agreement had been reached. Neither Bush nor his congressional lackeys dared allow any member to actually read the bill or know what they were voting for because then it would be obvious that the bill was unaffordable and almost certainly go down to defeat. The only hope of passage was stealth, speed and massive political pressure on principled conservative holdouts—a few of whom eventually buckled under pressure and allowed the bill to pass." More by Bruce Bartlett.