Conservatives in a Foul Mood

Yesterday several conservative orgs staged a press conference, led by Paul Weyrich. They're not quite hopping mad yet at the president, but they're beginning to bounce a little on the balls of their feet.

Weyrich said, "The Republican Congress is spending at twice the rate as under Bill Clinton, and President Bush has yet to issue a single veto. I complained about profligate spending during the Clinton years but never thought I'd have to do so with a Republican in the White House and Republicans controlling the Congress."

Weyrich and his confreres were as icy as a black frost. They used the "drunken sailor" analogy, already bandied about by Sen. John McCain to characterize the Republican Medicare Bill and their (as yet unpassed) Energy Bill. But it's the proposed Omnibus Spending Bill being pushed by Republican House & Senate leaders that had Weyrich & Company so het up.

And they warned darkly about what could happen this fall: "If the president doesn't take a stand on this, there's a real chance the Republicans' voter base will not be enthusiastic about turning out in November, no matter who the Democrats nominate."

Weyrich went even further: "...in all probability the party's conservative-activist core voters aren't going to work to help win the election for Bush and the Republicans, and they may well not even vote."

Something to watch: "Mr. Bush and the Republican lawmakers are expected to face another barrage of criticism next week, this time from some 4,000 activists at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where Vice President Dick Cheney and Republican congressional leaders are slated to speak.
" 'A lot of Senate Republicans will be speaking at CPAC, and the grass-roots conservatives attending won't be shy about their displeasure,' said Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union...."

The CPAC convention will probably be carried live on C-SPAN and might be worth browsing.