Yellowdogtexan
05-20-2008, 07:40 PM
bush and mc :cane need the support of the social conservative for mc :cane to win a third term for bush. bush relied on the support of the social conservatives to win in 2004 and has largely ignored their issues since the election. As a result the social conservatives are not happy with either bush or mc :cane http://blogs.wsj.com/politicalperceptions/2008/05/19/disquiet-on-the-right-a-danger-for-mccain/That sound you hear is rumbling among unhappy social conservatives on the Republican Party’s right wing; it spells trouble not just for President Bush, but for the party’s presumptive presidential candidate, John McCain.
At a time when Sen. McCain badly needs to consolidate the support of the Republican base before the general-election campaign begins in earnest, leaders of the party’s social conservatives are letting it be known—quietly, for now—that they aren’t happy with the way their desires are being met.
The immediate target of their grumbling is Mr. Bush, but the message to Sen. McCain is clear: “You need us in the fall, not just those independent voters everybody wants you to spend your time courting.”
Among other things, the disquiet on the right makes Sen. McCain’s response to last week’s California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in the state particularly important.
The most telling sign of unhappiness on the right was a letter sent by social-conservative leaders to Mr. Bush last month, complaining that his administration has been consistently rejecting federal funding for organizations that run programs promoting sexual abstinence among young Americans.
Many social conservatives believe that abstinence training has led to a drop in teen pregnancies and contributed to a decline in abortion rates. But the five-page letter cites a series of cases in which private groups that promote abstinence have had grant requests turned down by the administration, principally by the Department of Health and Human Services.
A Who’s Who of Social Conservatives
The letter says those grant decisions are “weakening” the president’s policy supporting abstinence training as vigorously as contraception efforts, “with concomitant harm to American youth.” It was signed by 50 Republican leaders representing a who’s who of social conservatives.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the administration continues to fund abstinence programs in other ways. More broadly, “movement conservatives have been overwhelmingly supportive of the president and for good reason: he’s been consistent in using his principles as a guide on everything from faith-based initiatives, to judges, to life issues,” Mr. Fratto said.
The letter is most important because it is merely the most overt sign of gnawing dissatisfaction. “It seems like the president, on our issues, just sort of laid down and died,” said J.C. Willke, president of the antiabortion Life Issues Institute and former head of the National Right to Life Committee.
Item No.1 on the list of complaints from Dr. Willke and other conservative leaders is Mr. Bush’s failure to compel the Senate to vote on the federal judges he has nominated. If approved, those nominations would put a new set of conservative judges on the federal bench for years to come, regardless of the outcome of this fall’s elections. The White House says some 30 judicial nominations are awaiting action in the Senate.
Conservatives, as you’d expect, think Democrats in the Senate are running out the clock in hopes of appointing their own, more liberal jurists after the election. But conservatives’ ire isn’t aimed solely at Democrats; they also blame the president for failing to force the issue. Mr. Bush ought to instruct Republicans in the Senate “simply to close up shop until this constitutionally correct set of people is given a shot at a vote,” Dr. Willke said. “And he’s done nothing.”
The social conservatives are not happy with bush or mc :cane and this is bad news for bush's third term
At a time when Sen. McCain badly needs to consolidate the support of the Republican base before the general-election campaign begins in earnest, leaders of the party’s social conservatives are letting it be known—quietly, for now—that they aren’t happy with the way their desires are being met.
The immediate target of their grumbling is Mr. Bush, but the message to Sen. McCain is clear: “You need us in the fall, not just those independent voters everybody wants you to spend your time courting.”
Among other things, the disquiet on the right makes Sen. McCain’s response to last week’s California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in the state particularly important.
The most telling sign of unhappiness on the right was a letter sent by social-conservative leaders to Mr. Bush last month, complaining that his administration has been consistently rejecting federal funding for organizations that run programs promoting sexual abstinence among young Americans.
Many social conservatives believe that abstinence training has led to a drop in teen pregnancies and contributed to a decline in abortion rates. But the five-page letter cites a series of cases in which private groups that promote abstinence have had grant requests turned down by the administration, principally by the Department of Health and Human Services.
A Who’s Who of Social Conservatives
The letter says those grant decisions are “weakening” the president’s policy supporting abstinence training as vigorously as contraception efforts, “with concomitant harm to American youth.” It was signed by 50 Republican leaders representing a who’s who of social conservatives.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the administration continues to fund abstinence programs in other ways. More broadly, “movement conservatives have been overwhelmingly supportive of the president and for good reason: he’s been consistent in using his principles as a guide on everything from faith-based initiatives, to judges, to life issues,” Mr. Fratto said.
The letter is most important because it is merely the most overt sign of gnawing dissatisfaction. “It seems like the president, on our issues, just sort of laid down and died,” said J.C. Willke, president of the antiabortion Life Issues Institute and former head of the National Right to Life Committee.
Item No.1 on the list of complaints from Dr. Willke and other conservative leaders is Mr. Bush’s failure to compel the Senate to vote on the federal judges he has nominated. If approved, those nominations would put a new set of conservative judges on the federal bench for years to come, regardless of the outcome of this fall’s elections. The White House says some 30 judicial nominations are awaiting action in the Senate.
Conservatives, as you’d expect, think Democrats in the Senate are running out the clock in hopes of appointing their own, more liberal jurists after the election. But conservatives’ ire isn’t aimed solely at Democrats; they also blame the president for failing to force the issue. Mr. Bush ought to instruct Republicans in the Senate “simply to close up shop until this constitutionally correct set of people is given a shot at a vote,” Dr. Willke said. “And he’s done nothing.”
The social conservatives are not happy with bush or mc :cane and this is bad news for bush's third term