Conservative Turns Against Bush

(CBS)  As an economist who worked in the administrations of both Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush, Bruce Bartlett has a long track record as a conservative.

But his new book is drawing fire from some of Bartlett's Republican colleagues for its sharp criticism of the current President Bush and his economic policies. It's called "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy."

Bartlett visited The Early Show and told co-anchor Hannah Storm that his book has turned him into a political pariah and cost him his job at a conservative think tank.

"They weren't too terribly pleased when they read the manuscript, and they fired me three weeks later," he said.

As for future work, there's none in sight. "I'm available for offers, but none of them are forthcoming."

In the book, Bartlett accuses the current President Bush of being a pretend conservative and betraying the political legacy of Ronald Reagan.

"My view is that Ronald Reagan represents to the Republican party its heart and soul, just as Franklin D. Roosevelt, I think, still represents the heart and soul of the Democratic party. And I think Bush has gone way far away from the sorts of things Ronald Reagan talked about and did," he told Storm.

"Expanding the size of government spending has just gone through the roof. He refuses to veto anything. We've had a protectionist trade policy, massive new government regulations on business from the Sarbanes Oxley legislation. The No Child Left Behind act, the campaign finance reform, which almost all conservatives think is unconstitutional. I just don't think Ronald Reagan would have done a lot of this," he said.

"I don't think this president really has any philosophy for, or even a rationale for a lot of what he's doing."

Storm asked Bartlett about his take on the current controversy over allowing an Arab company to take over operations at six major U.S. ports. He pointed out that there is an economic component to the issue that may appear to override concerns about national security.

"The Treasury may be thinking, 'Gee, if we nix this investment, other people may figure we don't need our dollars anymore because they'll nix our investment, too. I'm afraid the dollar could fall precipitously if this investment is torpedoed."

"I think a lot of the national security-oriented conservatives are scratching their heads and saying, 'What's going on here?'" Bartlett said.

As for electing the next president, Bartlett predicts that conservatives will have a lot to say.

"Right now they don't have a leader. There's a market opening, so to speak out there, for some Republican politician who wants to get the nomination in 2008 to reach out to what I call the Reagan wing of the party, the disaffected conservatives."

To read an excerpt from "Impostor," click here.