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Conservatives break with bush { May 13 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8660885.htmhttp://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8660885.htm
Posted on Thu, May. 13, 2004
Bush faces criticism from conservatives over Iraq, budget policy
By Steven Thomma and James Kuhnhenn
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - President Bush is facing sharp dissent from his conservative base about the war in Iraq that could force him to change course or risk losing critical support for his re-election campaign.
The complaints are rising from the traditional conservative wing of the Republican Party - including such influential voices as Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois and columnist George Will - who are challenging the "neo-conservative" doctrine that the United States can remake the Middle East by toppling dictator Saddam Hussein and nurturing a democracy to replace him.
"It would be foolish, not to say ruinously arrogant, to believe that we can determine the future of Iraq," said Hyde, an elder statesman in his party and the chairman of the House International Relations Committee, on Thursday before his panel.
"All of our energies, all of our talents, cannot substitute for the Iraqi people's assumption of responsibility for their own fate. However convinced we may be of our fate to do so, we cannot reinvent their country for them. ... Let us understand what is possible. We can assist them in that immense effort. We have already dramatically altered their universe of choices by providing them with the opportunity to choose their own government and their country's future path. But, foolish or not, the choice is theirs," Hyde said.
Bush still has solid support from his party's rank and file - 95 percent of conservative Republicans plan to vote for him or are leaning toward voting for him, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. And few conservatives are likely to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
But if dissatisfaction over the war and other hot-button issues - such as soaring federal budget deficits, an expensive new Medicare drug entitlement and a proposed near-amnesty for illegal immigrants - spreads through conservative ranks, it could force Bush to change course or face the prospect that some conservatives might sit out the what's expected to be another close election.
Bush tried to rally his base Thursday evening, addressing the 40th annual meeting of the American Conservative Union in Washington. He's consistently defended the goal of establishing democracy in Iraq and stuck to his Middle East vision in a speech to the black-tie crowd.
U.S. allies "know a free Iraq will be an agent for change in a part of the world that so desperately needs freedom and peace," Bush said. "The Iraqi people want to run themselves. And so, on June 30th a sovereign Iraqi interim government will take office, and there will be tough times ahead. These are not easy tasks. They are essential tasks, and America will finish what we have begun and we will win this essential victory in a war on terror."
Days earlier, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested in a speech in Kansas that Bush's vision of America's role in the world may be unrealistic and unwise.
"We need to restrain what are growing U.S. messianic instincts, a sort of global social engineering where the United States feels it is both entitled and obligated to promote democracy, by force if necessary," said Roberts.
"The United States must be willing to use force, unilaterally if necessary to protect our security and that of our allies," added Roberts. "But it is also time for some hard-headed assessment of American interests."
Hyde and Roberts aren't abandoning their support for the war to topple Saddam Hussein. Both voted for the congressional resolution last year authorizing military action in Iraq, citing the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
But no evidence has been found that Iraq had chemical or biological weapons or an active nuclear weapons program, and Hyde and Roberts now insist that the administration's first priority should be to stabilize the country so Iraqis can form their own government.
Many other usually loyal Republicans also are voicing reservations. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-Ariz., told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at a hearing Wednesday that he has deep doubts about the administration's plan to transfer partial sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
"I can envision that this situation will not work, and that we won't have an organizational structure that will do anything other than have Americans fighting and us supplying those fighters with more and more money," Domenici said.
Republicans in Washington said the dissent reflects a widening division in the party's ranks.
"There's a growing split between conservatives and neo-cons," said a senior House Republican aide who spoke on condition of anonymity lest he be seen as taking sides. "From day one, traditional conservatives did not believe that the United States could deliver democracy to Iraq."
Unlike traditional conservatives, who are wary of big government, budget deficits and foreign entanglements, so-called "neo-conservatives" believe that America has an opportunity and even a duty to export its concept of liberty. Some of them in the administration thought Iraq would be Exhibit A of how readily Western democracy would take root.
Columnist George Will, who is influential with traditional conservatives, recently scorned such neo-conservative thinking. He recently wrote that conservatism means seeing the world as it is, not as it should be.
"Traditional conservatism," Will wrote. "Nothing `neo' about it. This administration needs a dose of conservatism without the prefix."
In a follow-up column, Will voiced sharp criticism of the Bush White House for refusing to consider changing course in Iraq.
"This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts," Will wrote. "Being steadfast in defense of carefully considered convictions is a virtue. Being blankly incapable of distinguishing cherished hopes from disappointing facts, or of reassessing comforting doctrines in the face of contrary evidence, is a crippling political vice."
Bush faces other criticism from traditional conservatives, notably over his budget policies. Economic conservatives complain that Bush is presiding over an explosion of federal spending that's creating record budget deficits and soaring public debt.
"Federal government spending is out of control," David Keene, the president of the American Conservative Union, complained in a recent letter to members.
He noted that federal spending has increased by $300 billion since Bush took office in 2001, including $96 billion for domestic social welfare programs. By comparison, Keene said, federal spending increased by only $51 billion during the first six years of Bill Clinton's presidency.
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(William Douglas contributed to this report.)
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(The Pew poll cited in graf 5 was conducted May 3-9 of 1,800 adults and had an error margin of 2.5 percentage points.)
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