Ex-Bush Aide Seeks To "Save Conservatism"

Washington Post: With Book, Former Speechwriter Michael Gerson Is Back To Fight For GOP's Identity

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Peter Baker.

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For Michael Gerson, the pattern became discouragingly familiar. A proposal to help the poor or sick would be presented at a White House meeting, but Vice President Cheney's office or the budget team or some other skeptical officials would shoot it down. Too expensive. Wrong priority.

By the time he left the White House as President Bush's senior adviser last year, Gerson by his own account had grown weary of the battle, becoming an irritable colleague disillusioned by the conventions of a political party and a government that seemed indifferent to the plight of the downtrodden. Now he is back with a new book and a publicity tour intended to fight for the identity of the Republican Party.

"Traditional conservatism has a piece missing -- a piece that is shaped like a conscience," he notes in "Heroic Conservatism." His ambition, he says, is to help "save conservatism from its worst instincts" and build "a conservatism elevated by a radical concern for human rights and dignity."

Gerson, who now writes an op-ed column for The Washington Post, was best known as the speechwriter who helped a famously inarticulate Texan find words to define his presidency at key moments. He was also an apostle of "compassionate conservatism," Bush's effort to shave the harsh edges off the party of Newt Gingrich.

Gerson's book, part memoir and part political treatise, opens a window on the internal debates that marked the first six years of Bush's presidency, from the response to the mass killing in Darfur to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Time and again, Gerson depicts a lonely struggle to advance measures that would benefit AIDS patients, impoverished children or prisoners reentering society. He rues the Bush team's failure to do more to stand up to autocrats in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere to further its "freedom agenda." And he laments that the war in Iraq has sabotaged the president's efforts to redefine the Republican Party.

"Right now, there's a significant backlash against these ideas," Gerson said in an interview at his office at the Council on Foreign Relations last week. "If Republicans adopt a mean, anti-government message, they're not going to be able to win."

Gerson said he also wants to push Democrats to recognize genuine security concerns in an age of terrorism and the value of spreading democracy. But as he hits the talk-show circuit, including Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," his main message seems aimed at fellow conservatives.

A devout evangelical Christian, Gerson was a powerful if soft-spoken and sometimes dour presence in the Bush White House, more comfortable with the Bible studies of his alma mater, Wheaton College, than the towel-snapping Texas environment that surrounded Bush in the early days. Gerson talks in rapid-fire bursts, nervously doodling until his pen has literally ripped the page off a pad of paper.

He describes his initial, awkward relationship with Bush as the Texas governor assembled his campaign team in 1999. "He had a penchant for crude humor," Gerson writes, "that made me uncomfortable; not blasphemous language, but the vulgarity of the locker room."

Yet, he says he grew to admire Bush for his convictions and sincerity, and whatever blame Gerson has for the administration's failings is focused elsewhere.

Gerson was widely -- but not universally -- admired within the West Wing. One of his top two speechwriting deputies, Matthew Scully, wrote a scathing piece in the Atlantic magazine this summer accusing Gerson of "foolish vanity," "sheer pettiness" and "credit hounding." Scully complained that Gerson had assumed authorship of speeches he did not write, at least not alone. The other top speechwriter, John McConnell, still works at the White House and has declined to comment, but he has shared similar grievances with colleagues.

In his book, Gerson has nothing but praise for Scully and McConnell in passages that a friend who had read the galleys said were in the text before the Atlantic piece came out. Gerson describes Scully as "an elegant writer with a gentle manner" and refers to the involvement of Scully and McConnell in key speeches at many points in his narrative.

"For seven years these two speechwriters would be my friends and partners, and hardly a cross word ever passed between us," he writes.

Gerson is more critical of Cheney's office, former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and two Texas Republicans who served as House majority leaders, Tom DeLay and Richard K. Armey.

Gerson writes that he urged Bush to fire Rumsfeld after the 2004 election, but that Cheney opposed the move. He recounts meetings in which Cheney's office tried to kill proposals to increase training of death-row defense lawyers, transition assistance for prisoners and aid for Hurricane Katrina victims.

"The storm had also revealed a political and moral chasm in the Republican Party," he writes. "The president and I saw Katrina as an opportunity to open a debate on race and poverty. Anti-government Republicans saw Katrina as an opportunity to cut off medicine to old people. It confirmed the worst image of Republicans as the party of shriveled hearts."

[pepperp1]

"Traditional conservatism has a piece missing -- a piece that is shaped like a conscience," he notes in "Heroic Conservatism." His ambition, he says, is to help "save conservatism from its worst instincts" and build "a conservatism elevated by a radical concern for human rights and dignity."



The guy is so far off the mark, subsitute the word conscience for the old word moral. Vauge and undefined can run 100 buses through the deifniton.

Try repsect for the Law and the order that comes to the People in society with it and ethics, ETHICS are what the GOP is missing.


And Cheney could not have done a dammmn thing if Bush did allow him too and if Bush would have chosen to show up in Washington and do the hard work of governing Cheney would not have caused the harm he did. GOPer we Americans dislike and believe Cheney to be an untalented reckless man who drank alcohol and shot his friend in the face but we hold Bush responsible for the choice of Cheney and for Cheney%u2019s action and that of his felonious Chief of Staff Libby.

[oldprophet]

You get the sense that our country is desperate for someone to show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50 years. Tens of thousands of them. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of the Middle-East, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term U.S. Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to economics. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he gave physicals to as an Air Force Flight Surgeon during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I%u2019ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the proven track record of adherance to the Constitution, Congressman Paul has demonstrated in office only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky. Go Ron Paul!

[antoniof123]

compassionate conservatism = reactionary fascist religious right wing nut.

They are not conservatives. A true conservative like a true liberal is a middle of the road.

These nut cases have called true Americans traitors for the last time. They have given America the one thing we need a reason to unify.

[prinzowhales]

All the rats are deserting the ship...they, and people like them, followed this Chimp for seven years...now they weasel away to get a ride on the next ship...The USS Dumbarse is being decommissioned soon, you''ll soon find them serving on the USS Offalhead and calling fascism, conservatism for the a few stolen coin.

[cfin5]

Well then if "conservatives" want to save themselves from the Presidents "UNCONSTITUTIONAL" smooching on the UN, LOST treaty, NAU, SSP, while waving the flag for our troops, they had better come out and be "THOROUGHLY" public about it. Time''s awastin'' away by the second. Here''s a little "hint" to unconfuse any excuse for procrastinating,........"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves".----William Pitt.............Ron Paul, the constitution abiding candidate for ''08! GO USA!!!

[rowdytexan2]

Oh enough already of the Ron Paul stuff...

His own party will not let him near the White House! They''re his worse e.n.e.m.a.!...I mean ENEMY!

[usaprophet]

Some people say, "a Republican? I''d never vote for a Republican." Let me remind you folks that Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and who won the war to preserve our Union, WAS himself a Republican. Would you have voted for Stephen Douglas, who was ardently pro slavery, against Lincoln simply because he was a Democrat? Of course you wouldn''t. It''s the person your voting for, and the ideas he or she represents, NOT the party. Paul represents a different Republican Party from the one that Iraq, deficits and corruption have soured the country on. The Republican party has "lost its way," he said recently during a GOP debate. Like the limited federal government principles espoused by Dwight D. Eisenhower, his school of Republicanism stands for a certain idea of the Constitution that much of the power asserted by modern Presidents has been usurped from Congress, and that much of the power asserted by Congress has been usurped from the States. Though Paul acknowledges flaws in both the Constitution (it included slavery) and the Bill of Rights (it doesn''t go far enough), he still thinks a comprehensive array of positions can be drawn therefrom: against gun control; for the sovereignty of States; and against foreign-policy adventures like the ones currently being played-out in the Mid-East. After ten terms of service as a U.S. Congressman, Ron Paul has demonstarted a consistent track record of adherance to The Constitution which is unmatched by anyone in either party. Go Ron Paul!

[honeymoonie]

Bravo to the prophet! Gerson will vote for Hillary the Witch before he votes for Ron Paul!

[usaprophet]

Ron Paul represents a different Republican Party from the one that Iraq, deficits and corruption have soured the country on. It''s ironic that other GOP candidates are scared to death of his message, BECAUSE his is more conservative than theirs. Being anti-war IS conservative. Another key difference between his message and the others is that he is a strong defender in The Constitution, which protects our civil liberties. The other Republican cadidates, who are mostly NWO Oligarchs, want to control your liberties. They''ve tried hard to exlude him from the spotlight, along with the right-wing press. In late June, despite a life of antitax agitation and pious churchgoing, he was excluded from a Republican forum sponsored by Iowa antitax and Christian groups. Ron Paul does not represent your Father''s style of Republicanism. He represents your Founding Father''s hopes for America. He stands for a certain idea of the Constitution; the idea that much of the power asserted by modern presidents has been usurped from Congress, and that much of the power asserted by Congress has been usurped from the states. Though Dr. Paul acknowledges flaws in both the Constitution (it included slavery) and the Bill of Rights (it doesn%u2019t go far enough), he still thinks a comprehensive array of positions can be drawn therefrom: against gun control; for the sovereignty of states; and against foreign-policy adventures. His message draws on the noblest traditions of American decency and patriotism.

[ioweign]

Lipstick on a Pig !