O CANADA
Conservatives have shown Bush entirely too much loyalty
BY JOE SOBRAN

David Frum is back in the news. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post reports that he led conservative opposition to Harriet Miers, President Bush’s fallen Supreme Court nominee, and he’s said to be “the target of fierce resentment by administration officials.” 

After all, Frum used to be a Bush speechwriter. When the president spoke of the “axis of evil” in a State of the Union speech, Frum managed to take credit for the phrase — though he’d actually written “axis of hate” before some White House gremlin modified it, or intensified it, depending on which version you think is more hysterical.

Restraint isn’t the Frum style. A couple of years ago he was co-author of a book titled An End to Evil (or was it An End to Hate?) which warned that unless the War on Terror was won, the United States faced nothing less than a “holocaust.”

Before that, he’d accused several conservative writers (including me) of “hating their country” because they opposed the war. The charge raised hackles, since Frum himself is an American only on paper. He may be a naturalized U.S. citizen, but Canadian blood runs in his veins, and Kurtz says he “periodically” returns to his native country and still writes a column for a Canadian newspaper. You can take the boy out of Canada, but you can’t take Canada out of theboy, eh? 

None of which has stopped Frum from vaulting to the pinnacle of American conservatism. He helped draft a petition against Miers for conservatives to sign, and some 3,000 of them have put their names to it, perhaps unaware of a possible alien interest. 

Frum himself says the issue is one of “principle.” He says he felt “ill” about opposing such a “lovely person,” but Miers just didn’t measure up to Supreme Court standards. 

He recalls her praising Bush as “the most brilliant man she had ever met.” And I agree that this alone should have disqualified her from a seat on the Court. Frankly, I’d be dubious about anyone who said Bush is even above average. I’m a patriot, but I have to go with the Canadians on this one. 

The conservative reaction against Bush is long overdue. Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review, one of the most thoughtful young conservative writers around, marvels that it has taken Miers to bring things to a boil. He observes that conservatives are now “feeling betrayed.”

For five years Bush has trampled the constitutional limits that used to define conservatism. And from whom has he been getting his legal advice? From none other than Harriet Miers! 

Bush asked us to accept Miers because he trusted her. That was actually an excellent reason for misgivings about her. 

Mrs. Bush added her own suspicion that Miers’ opponents were prejudiced against her because she’s a woman. This is simply idiotic. Those opponents were recently hoping the president would nominate any of several distinguished female judges rather than one of his own male cronies. 

The president really blew it this time. He picked Miers to reward her loyalty to him — and he also expected conservatives to support her out of loyalty to him. Bush, his wife, and Miers form what Frum might call an axis of ninnies. 

Conservatives have shown Bush entirely too much loyalty, and the result is a mess to which the Miers fiasco is only the latest addition. Why didn’t they see this coming when they went along with his war, his entitlement spending, and his constitutional transgressions? Miers’ fulsome praise of her boss is no more revolting than that of certain Canadian expatriates who have hailed him as a great war president. 

Now at last the conservatives are starting to see what a huge embarrassment George W. Bush is to the very name of conservatism. They’re being forced to face all the things they’ve pretended not to notice, while congratulating themselves on winning control of the federal government. 

While preaching limited government, the conservatives wanted power. Well, they got it — about as much power as men ever get. And what do they have to show for it? A miserable war, boundless debt, and the biggest government in American history. Now they’re fighting about who betrayed the “principles” they used to espouse. Blame the Canadians.

Joe Sobran is an author, syndicated columnist and editor of a monthly newsletter, SOBRAN’S. See sobran.com for more information or to contact Joe, write to joseph@sobran.com.