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Trust Bush? Not with the Constitution.

Jimmie | October 4, 2005 | Comments (0)

President Bush said todayk about Harriet Miers:

“I don’t want to put somebody on the bench who is this way today and changes,” he said. “That’s not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in finding somebody who shares my philosophy today and will have that same philosophy 20 years from now.”

Basically, the President’s one and only word on Harriet Miers is this: she thinks like me, so trust me.

Sorry, folks, but if that’s all I have, it’s not good enough. I realize this puts me severely at odds with very good people, but I can’t in good conscience trust this President on Constitutional issues and continue to call myself a conservative.

This is, remember, the very same President who signed the abominable McCain/Feingold Act into law, even though he believed (and said publicly) that it was unconstitutional. He decided to punt on the issue and let the Supreme Court decide the issue. Well, as you know, they upheld the law and now your political speech is heavily restricted.

This is also the same man who came in on the side of affirmative action quotas in the Michigan Law School case. Apparently, this President believes that “equal protection under the law” only applies until you have a really good reason for not treating everyone equally.

This is also the same man whose administration fought the rights of the states to make their own decisions on medical marijuana. Apparently, people of each state don’t have the right to decide what’s best for them medically, if the Federal Government disagrees. Democracy? Not in this case.

This is also the same man who has yet to say a harsh word about the Kelo decision which, as we speak, lets your own local governments take your house and land form you and give it to a commercial developer, all in the name of tax revenue. One might think that a President interested in preserving your right to own property might have at least given Congress a nudge, or he could have given a few Governors a phone call.

This is also the same man who is seriously considering bringing the military into disaster scenes no matter what local and state officials say about it.

What I’m saying, quite simply, is that George Bush is no conservative when it comes to the Constitution. This is what baffles me about some of the support I’ve been seeing around the blogosphere from very good people.

For instance, The Anchoress says:

How’s about we let her testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, hear her out, and THEN form our opinions yea or nea and let the Senate either confirm or dump? You know…the old-fashioned way.

Well, sure. But right now George Bush is telling us that she’s just like him. And folks, that’s not nearly good enough.

I’ll say this again and again until I’m blue in the face. George Bush promised me someone like Scalia and Thomas. Instead, according to him, he’s giving us someone just like him. Well, I’m sorry, folks, but George Bush isn’t anywhere close to Scalia or Thomas.

I’m going to be stubborn on this. At some point conservatives have to understand that George Bush has given us five years of conservative happy talk and has only ever delivered on tax cuts and the War on Terror. Those are big and important things and I’m very glad for them, but they’re not enough for me to keep sucking up to him. Conservatives are supposed to be about results. Well, what conservative results have we gotten out of the President aside from those two issues?

Federal spending is out of control and shows absolutely no sign of slowing down. We have demonstrably fewer Constitutional rights than we did five years ago. Education spending has increased, the Federal Government has greater control of our schools, and our students are still woefully unprepared when they graduate – if they graduate. Our Justice Department, instead of making terrorism it’s primary goal, is spending time going after porn and Martha Stewart.

Are those the actions of a conservative to you. They certainly aren’t to me.

Thus far, I’ve supported George Bush for three reasons: 1) he truly honestly believes in keeping taxes low, 2) he has been fighting terrorists steadfastly, and 3) he promised us more SCOTUS judges like Scalia and Thomas. I’m not so foolish as to believe that hes a conservative. His actions prove differently. But he’s kept his end of the bargain thus far and as such, he’s won me over for the past five years.

Not anymore. He broke a promise. He let me down, on purpose and after careful consideration. Well, okay. He’s entitled to do that. He’s the President and I’m just some low-ranking blogger.

But I won’t forget and I’ll use this blog to remind anyone who’ll read it that he broke a very, very important promise.

And, jut as a note to any liberal folks who happen across my blog and are of a mind to oppose Harriet Miers’ nomination: go right ahead. You won’t get one scintilla of opposition from me. In fact, I might just give you a helping hand.