Now if you'd like a list of Bush initiatives Obama has ramped UP,
lemme know, its kinda lengthy
On Feb 24, 10:50 am, Tommy News <tommysn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Santorum Dragged Down By Support Of Bush Initiatives
>
> George W. Bush Still A Drag On Rick Santorum's Prospects
>
> WASHINGTON - In 2006, Rick Santorum was decisively tossed out of his
> Senate seat in Pennsylvania by 18 points, in a wave election where
> Democrats romped largely because of President George W. Bush's
> unpopularity.
>
> Six years later, Santorum is running for Bush's old job, but the
> former president is still a weight around his neck.
>
> Santorum was dragged down in Wednesday night's debate by his support
> for a few of Bush's initiatives.
>
> The 2002 No Child Left Behind legislation was the Bush agenda item
> that hurt Santorum most in the debate. Santorum said his support for
> the measure was "a mistake."
>
> "It was against the principles I believed in, but, you know, when
> you're part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team, for the
> leader," Santorum said.
>
> Mitt Romney, ignoring the fact that he himself supported No Child Left
> Behind, made hay Thursday with Santorum's ill-advised quip.
>
> "I wonder which team he was taking it for," Romney said at a campaign
> stop in Phoenix. "My team is the American people, not the insiders in
> Washington."
>
> Others said it was no mystery which team Santorum was on.
>
> "The team he was taking it for was President George W. Bush in his
> first year in office," said Bill Kristol, the founder of the
> conservative Weekly Standard, on Fox News.
>
> But Kristol said that Santorum's admission that he had erred was to
> the Pennsylvanian's credit, and that Romney's 2006 health care
> overhaul when he was governor of Massachusetts is a bigger problem for
> him.
>
> "Maybe No Child Left Behind was bad legislation. Rick Santorum said
> last night, 'I made a mistake.' Mitt Romney has never said about
> RomneyCare, 'I made a mistake.' And as a conservative, I think
> RomneyCare is a heck of a lot bigger mistake than the No Child Left
> Behind bill," Kristol said.
>
> Romney also dinged Santorum Wednesday for two other times that
> Santorum helped Bush, namely his 2004 endorsement of fellow
> Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter -- which was important to the White
> House at the time so that they kept control of the Senate -- and
> Bush's imposition of tariffs on imported steel in 2002.
>
> Santorum's steel tariff decision was driven as much by parochial
> self-interest as any loyalty to Bush, but it was nonetheless a
> controversial decision with conservatives for Bush to put the trade
> barriers in place, and Santorum's support -- at a time when he was the
> number three Republican in the Senate -- was a help to the White
> House.
>
> The way in which Bush's legacy has begun to hurt Santorum is a
> microcosm, some said, for how the former Republican president
> negatively impacted the conservative movement as a whole.
>
> "Santorum is a perfect example of what Bushism did to the Republican
> Party," said a former Senate GOP aide with detailed knowledge of
> Santorum's work in GOP leadership, who feels Santorum "undermine(d)
> fiscal conservatives."
>
> Many conservatives see No Child Left Behind, along with Bush's
> expansion of Medicare and his failure to veto any spending bills for
> most of his presidency -- while Republicans controlled Congress -- as
> betrayals of conservative belief in limited government. They believe
> Bush accelerated a trend of expanding the federal government that has
> in turn been sped up by President Barack Obama.
>
> A win for Santorum in next Tuesday's Michigan primary would be a
> game-changer, badly wounding Romney and thrusting Santorum forward
> into the driver's seat. But Santorum's Bush association is one of the
> major factors -- past statements on social issues is the other big one
> -- that has been a drag on his momentum this week, as Romney has moved
> to make up ground in the polls.
>
> Yet Andrew Card, who was Bush's White House chief of staff from 2001
> to 2006, said that Santorum was not an automatic Bush ally in every
> fight.
>
> "He was not always a dependable vote to be honest with you. We had to
> work hard for it," Card told The Huffington Post. "But he listened
> well and gave us the benefit of the doubt when we came to him with a
> challenge."
>
> On No Child Left Behind, Card said he "put Rick in the leaning
> favorable-skeptic category" going into the effort to pass the
> legislation. Santorum's caution, Card said, was based on concerns
> about the federal government's role in education.
>
> "I still think it's the right policy," Card, currently acting dean of
> The Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M
> University, said of the law.
>
> "It didn't always get implemented to live up to people's expectations.
> But it was a noble and historic reform that was brought into education
> that you were going to hold people accountable and have some measure
> of success," Card said. "It did crack the establishment to bring more
> accountability to it."
>
> More:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/bush-santorum-_n_1298273.htm...
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
>
> --
> Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
> Have a great day,
> Tommy
--
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