George W. Bush is no conservative.(Ahead Of The Curve)

ITEM: The February 6, 2004 Washington Times, in an article entitled "GOP slams Bush policies at retreat," reported that "growing frustration over President Bush's immigration plan and lack of fiscal discipline came to a head behind closed doors at last weekend's Republican retreat in Philadelphia." According to the Times, "House lawmakers, stunned by the intensity, of their constituents' displeasure at some of Mr. Bush's key domestic policies, gave his political strategist Karl Rove an earful...." In fact, "Many of the 218 Republicans at the retreat said immigration and overspending had emerged as the top two issues in their home districts."

ITEM: William Rusher, in a column posted on February 12 on WorldNetDaily, observed: "The disgruntled mutterings about President Bush in conservative circles are getting too loud to ignore. From National Review to The Heritage Foundation, not to mention such libertarian redoubts as The Cato Institute, the grumbling is reaching impressive levels. It doesn't (yet) amount to outright rebellion. The protesters are still on board for November; few of them are seriously threatening to stay home on Election Day and let John Kerry waltz into the White House. But it is fair to say that, in the opinion of many serious people, the integrity of the conservative movement as we've known it is at stake."

ITEM: The February 23 issue of Fortune posed an interesting question in a headline: "Kerry and Bush: Who's the Liberal?" The article observed: "There was a time when the Republicans could effectively paint the Democrats as 'tax and spend' liberals, while portraying themselves as the party of fiscal restraint. This election, however, that logic will be turned on its head, as President Bush is likely to face a Democrat whose credentials as a deficit hawk are surprisingly strong." Of course, Bush's bloated budget proposals should not cause conservatives to flock to the big-spending Democrats, no matter how they might sugar-coat their message. But the question raised by the title is very apropos. "[I]f one had any doubts that budget politics have gone through the looking glass," the article noted, "just guess which former GOP punching bag would get the largest funding increase in 20 years under the Bush budget: the National Endowment for the Arts."

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: That the neoconservative National Review or Heritage Foundation would grumble about Bush's conservative apostasy shows just how far to the left the administration has tilted--or how transparent that apostasy has become among the grass-roots conservatives the Establishment neoconservative network wants to lead astray. Until recently, of course, no discord could be heard from the neoconservative chorus that trumpeted Bush's supposed conservatism. But it was obvious even before George W. Bush became president that he ...