Crying

A lot has been made in the left blogosphere about the following post by George Conway of the NRO's Reconcilable Differences blog. From Reconcilable Differences:

I'm disgruntled, too, and I'm going to get it all of my chest this morning: I've never voted for a Democrat in a general election in my life, and I don't expect to anytime soon, but it's been impossible for me over the past couple of years to get enthused about the Republican party. I voted for President Bush twice, and contributed to his campaign twice, but held my nose when I did it the second time. I don't consider myself a Republican any longer. Thanks to this Administration and the Republicans in Congress, the Republican Party today is the party of pork-barrel spending, Congressional corruption — and, I know folks on this web site don't want to hear it, but deep down they know it's true — foreign and military policy incompetence. Frankly, speaking of incompetence, I think this Administration is the most politically and substantively inept that the nation has had in over a quarter of a century. The good news about it, as far as I'm concerned, is that it's almost over.

I wonder if Conway would be crooning this tune if President Bush's, or for that matter republicans in general, approval ratings weren't so bad. I suspect not. Some other conservatives have been banging the incompetent drum lately as well, but I think it has to do a lot more with fear of losing the House or Senate than actual outrage over poor policy.

Perhaps Conway's view of modern republicans was initially obscured by the blind joy of capturing all three branches of government, but the elected republicans have been consistent since day one when Bush took office. I don't recall any conservative pundits trying to correct the course in the days of high Bush approval ratings. No, only coping with the possibility of the loss of power brings them out from under the partisan rug.

Only now do they choose not to associate with their brethren, to point their fingers at their elected colleagues' failures, to raise their noses above "faux conservatives."

Well, I'm sorry. You were complicit with your silence, and when the piper comes to collect his pay from your movement, you'd better be ready to ante up.