Not A Conservative And Not A Good President

Peggy Noonan, who learned a thing or two about modern, Reagan-style conservatives back when conservatives did govern the country, expresses her disgust with the White House's betrayal of conservative principles in today's Wall Street Journal. The critical indictment:

...the great shortcoming of this White House, the great thing it is missing, is simple wisdom. Just wisdom--a sense that they did not invent history, that this moment is not all there is, that man has lived a long time and there are things that are true of him, that maturity is not the same thing as cowardice, that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and actually at this point in history we don't need hacks.

I don't particularly agree with Ms. Noonan's opposition to the immigration bill, which is what seems to have inspired her contempt for Bush the Younger. (I think doing something is better than doing nothing and I'm mindful that the bill is a compromise, meaning that it is probably the least bad of the several options available.)

But it's helpful to note that the President and his advisors are really kind of making things up as they go. There is no purpose or focus to this administration, no vision for where the country ought to be, no sense of direction or priority. It's hardly a surprise, then, that even the Republicans seeking to run for President -- including a former advisor to the President himself -- are running as hard as they can away from the White House.

The only unifying theme for the White House is loyalty. Bush and his Bushmen have demanded uncritical loyalty from the country for no better reason than that Bush is the President, and a significant number of Americans have proven willing to give it. But the example of Scooter Libby should serve as a graphic caution that, loyalty flows up but not down in this Administration. And even that loyal 30% who would say that they supported the President even if he slit some guy's throat in the Rose Garden have to be a little irritated about this immigration bill.

UPDATE: Post was reformatted and minor grammatical error corrected.