Hard-core conservatives fleeing Bush’s side

Concerns over spending, immigration policy running high, experts say

 

NEWS ANALYSIS

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker

The Washington Post

Updated: 1:00 a.m. ET May 11, 2006

 

WASHINGTON - Disaffection over spending and immigration have caused conservatives to take flight from President Bush and the Republican Congress at a rapid pace in recent weeks, sending Bush's approval ratings to record lows and presenting a new threat to the GOP's 12-year reign on Capitol Hill, according to White House officials, lawmakers and new polling data.

 

Bush and Congress have suffered a decline in support from almost every part of the conservative coalition over the past year, a trend that has accelerated with alarming implications for Bush's governing strategy.

 

The Gallup polling organization recorded a 13-percentage-point drop in Republican support for Bush in the past couple of weeks. These usually reliable voters are telling pollsters and lawmakers they are fed up with what they see as out-of-control spending by Washington and, more generally, an abandonment of core conservative principles.

 

There are also significant pockets of conservatives turning on Bush and Congress over the their failure to tighten immigration laws, restrict same-sex marriage, and put an end to the Iraq war and the rash of political scandals, according to lawmakers and pollsters.

 

Coalescing around the base

Bush won two presidential elections by pursuing a political and governing model that was predicated on winning and sustaining the loyal backing of social, economic and foreign policy conservatives. The strategy was based on the belief that conservatives, who are often more politically active than the general public, could be inspired to vote in larger numbers and would serve as a reliable foundation for his presidency. The theory, as explained by Bush strategists, is that the president would enjoy a floor below which his support would never fall.

 

It is now apparent that this floor has weakened dramatically -- and collapsed in places.

 

"A lot of us have been like Paul Revere and sounding the alarm for three or four years," said Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). "Conservatives forgave Bush and Congress for our past mistakes because the war on terrorism was so important . . . but now there is a great deal of unhappiness. What you are going to increasingly see is a divided Republican Party."

 

Michael Franc, a top official at the Heritage Foundation, said his organization hosted 600 of its top conservative donors last week and heard more widespread complaining about Republicans than at any other point in the past 12 years. "It begins with spending, extends through immigration and results in a sense that we have Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee for the two parties," Franc said.

 

Dissatisfaction in the trenches

Ralph Sivillo, a 64-year-old retiree living in Monroe, N.Y., said he started turning against Bush in January. He said Democrats are beginning to look better to him. "I'm really dead against Bush at this point. What's he doing? He's doing nothing. Everybody's just bailing on him because they feel the same way."

 

"He's not well liked," said Douglas Giles, 47, a self-described conservative from Buffalo. "A lot of people don't think he's very good."

 

Michael Dimock of the Pew Research Center, a leading polling group, said one of the most striking findings of recent surveys is the growing number of conservatives who "don't see Bush as one of them" as they did earlier. Pew found that Bush has suffered a 24-point drop in his approval rating among voters who backed him in 2004: from 92 percent in January 2005 to 68 percent in March.

 

Frank Newport of the Gallup Organization cautioned against reading too much into Bush's recent loss of support among conservatives. He said the numbers tend to ebb and flow and must be confirmed over several months before it is possible to conclude the president has suffered irreversible erosion.

 

Moreover, the public's view of the economy and Washington may have been soured by gasoline prices having topped $3 a gallon over the past month.

 

 

Trend worries GOP strategists

But GOP lawmakers and strategists, who have reviewed a series of polls released in recent weeks, said the results confirm what they are hearing from voters: Conservatives are demoralized and defecting in worrisome numbers. The most recent Associated Press poll found Bush had a 52 percent approval rating among conservatives; only 33 percent had a favorable opinion of the Republican-run Congress.

 

"The problem in my mind, and the only way to explain the very significant erosion is just a disgust with what appears to be a complete abandonment of limited government," said former Republican congressman Patrick J. Toomey, who runs the conservative Club for Growth. Toomey said commitment to smaller government has been the unifying idea for most elements of the GOP coalition since Ronald Reagan's presidency. "Republicans have finally had enough," he said, a sentiment echoed by several other conservative activists and lawmakers.

 

Since Bush took office, government spending has increased by more than 25 percent, the largest increase under any president since Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. At the same time, Bush and the Republican Congress dramatically increased the government's role in, and overall spending on, education and Medicare by enacting the No Child Left Behind law and new prescription drug entitlement for seniors. David A. Keene, head of the American Conservative Union, said there is a sense of flaccid leadership at the White House and in Congress that begets "things like frustration, which leads to disgust and apathy" among conservatives.

 

Unease over immigration

The immigration debate appears to be damaging Bush and GOP lawmakers, too. Conservative voters are saying they want swift congressional action to secure to the border and enforce immigrations laws, but Bush and Congress are split over the best way to deal with illegal immigrants already in the country.

 

A new Zogby Interactive poll found that fewer than 25 percent of respondents who described themselves as conservative or very conservative approved of Bush's handling of the immigration debate. "Unfortunately, when it comes to controlling our borders, we are about a decade behind where we need to be," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.).

 

Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, and GOP leaders are well aware of the problem and planning a summer offensive to win back conservatives with a mix of policy fights and warnings of how a Democratic Congress would govern. The plan includes votes on tax cuts, a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage, new abortion restrictions, and measures to restrain government spending.

 

Assistant polling director Claudia Deane and political researcher Zachary A. Goldfarb contributed to this report.

 

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

 

© 2006 MSNBC.com

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12729893/

 

:)

Great News !

Wow, turnaround

I'm surprised MrCoolio hasn't responded to this yet.... what will he say to the Conservatives now.... :lol:

Thing thing is.....feeling to where?? Hilary Clinton??? they are one and the same

 

http://infowars.net/articles/may2006/100506clinton.htm

honestly... I don't really care who they are fleeing to.. I'm just glad that the man is finally being seen for the fool and liar that he is...

:) great to have some people on my side as well!

While some hardcore cons are leaving his side on immagration, some lefties are agreeing with him!

While some hardcore cons are leaving his side on immagration' date=' some lefties are agreeing with him![/quote']

 

 

only on the immigration plan.... not on his overall presidency..... :rolleyes: look at the numbers..... its not record breaking. What is record breaking is his overall approval rating... :nice:

I care nothing for approval ratings, they only show how fickle humans are, they prove nothing.

and your point is????

"they prove nothing" they prove something alright, they prove that not all americans are as easily fooled by his bullshit and his lies as you are. I dont want to personally insult anyone, but saying that OTHER people are fickle because his approval rating is shit, is just retarted

if the polls where in Bush's favor.... he'd be singing a different tune...

"they prove nothing" they prove something alright' date=' they prove that not all americans are as easily fooled by his bullshit and his lies as you are. I dont want to personally insult anyone, but saying that OTHER people are fickle because his approval rating is shit, is just retarted[/quote']

 

They prove americans are easily fooled by the media and are VERY fickle. Im saying people are fickle because people are very fickle. because they sway easily in their beliefs. Its not something new, people in general are fickle, specialy americans.

if the polls where in Bush's favor.... he'd be singing a different tune...

 

No, because when they were in his favor, i sang the exact same tune. nice try though camille.

you are so full of shite Nick.... lmao you kill me!

Touche. but being serious, i dont give a damn if they are in favor of bush or not, because when they were in bush's favor i didnt think any different of them. you are the one full of shit, quite alot of it.

how can you say that though.. you think all polls are rigged?

Nope

so then..... how can you stand by that statement and say polls show nothing.

Well they do show something, but all in all they show how fickle americans are and how easily swayed they are by the media.

What has the media in America been saying about Bush recently?

What has the media in America been saying about Bush recently?

 

 

the media has always been pretty unbiased in the past.... mostly conservative if you ask me.. but lately.. its been questioning the actions on the part of the government...

 

like this latest scandal on the phone records thingy.... now its come about that the government illegally obtained phone records from thousands of phone carriers here in the US...

 

 

 

nice.

the media has always been pretty unbiased in the past.... mostly conservative if you ask me.. but lately.. its been questioning the actions on the part of the government...

 

like this latest scandal on the phone records thingy.... now its come about that the government illegally obtained phone records from thousands of phone carriers here in the US...

 

 

 

nice.

 

hahaha since day one its only attacked bush, an most americans get their news from american biased news sources they are fooled and tricked.

 

You made a small error in your post, you added an IL on to the legally part...what bush and teh nsa did with that was quite legal and within his right and what a good president should do. but thanks to the dems and the media they are tricking america to think bush did something, bad and illegal and something against america. but i have a feeling the majority of american arent that mad about it.

do you ever stop and read what you've just written?