[Mb-civic] On the Capitol Grounds, Grass Roots Rising - Dana Milbank - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

On the Capitol Grounds, Grass Roots Rising

By Dana Milbank
Thursday, February 9, 2006; A02

The people out on the West Lawn of the Capitol were the kind of 
God-fearing, flag-waving conservatives who usually adore President Bush. 
But not yesterday.

"The president doesn't want secure borders!" Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) 
shouted to the anti-immigration rally, organized by the Minuteman 
Project. "He has the resources to do so, but the unfortunate, dirty 
truth of the matter is he has no desire to do so."

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) denounced Bush's immigration policy, 
saying, "I personally will not vote for any legislation that has a guest 
worker program in it."

As demonstrators cheered and waved signs saying such things as "Bush 
Buries the Middle Class," talk-show host Terry Anderson summed up the 
mood. "The president sucks," he cried.

The fervor subsided only when two men dressed in brown and wearing 
swastikas goose-stepped toward the Minutemen and gave a Nazi salute. The 
men, straight out of "The Producers," handed out fliers encouraging the 
Minutemen to "end your alliance with the Republicans!!!" -- and join the 
American Nazi Party. Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist called for 
an intermission "to resolve this situation."

There were no such theatrics inside the Capitol complex, but frustration 
with Bush was palpable, even among allies. Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Tex.), 
a Bush guy through and through, said the White House budget for border 
enforcement is short "to the tune of millions of dollars." Asked after a 
meeting with border-county sheriffs if Bush was doing enough, Bonilla 
paused. "Uh, not yet," he said. "We're continuing to push."

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bush?

Not Sen. Olympia J. Snowe. The Maine Republican lectured Treasury 
Secretary John W. Snow about an administration tax policy that was 
"putting the cart before the horse" and preserving a "devastating" tax 
on the middle class.

Not Sen. Arlen Specter. The Pennsylvania Republican called proposed cuts 
to Medicare and education in Bush's budget "scandalous."

Not Sen. John W. Warner. The Virginia Republican used the appearance of 
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Armed Services Committee to 
complain that poor oil, water and health facilities in Iraq are "going 
to obscure the gains that have been made."

And not Rep. Heather A. Wilson. The New Mexico Republican, in a tough 
reelection fight, defied the White House by demanding briefings on the 
administration's warrantless surveillance program and calling for 
legislation on it. "The checks and balances in our system of government 
are very important," she told reporters.

Painful cuts in Bush's budget proposal this week -- coming on top of low 
approval ratings, a lobbying scandal and worries about November's 
elections -- have made Republicans particularly brazen in their 
denunciations of their once-powerful POTUS.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) lectured OMB Director Joshua B. Bolten: 
"I believe if we impose a mandate on the states, we ought to pay the 
bill." Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) advised Bolten he was "not so 
impressed" with cuts in fossil-fuel research. And Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee 
(R-R.I.) came close to a DOA pronouncement when he said that "the 
president's budget proposal is only that: a proposal."

With regular Republicans acting as gadflies, the usual gadflies had to 
improve their game.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) pronounced himself "a bit amused" by Vice 
President Cheney's concession that he'd be "willing to listen" to 
Congress about the surveillance program. "He's got a very skewed 
misunderstanding of the Constitution," Hagel told The Washington Post's 
Charles Babington. "It doesn't work that way. The Congress is a co-equal 
branch of government. . . . So to arrogantly say, 'We're willing to 
listen to them,' that's not good enough."

The attitude has, evidently, reached the grass roots. Out on the Capitol 
grounds yesterday, the conservative activists who filed past the 
Minuteman microphones were uniform in denouncing Bush and those in 
Congress who would have "guest worker" immigration programs. "To those 
who have betrayed their oath of office [and] want to welcome millions 
more illegal alien criminals, smugglers and even terrorists into our 
country via a so-called, fraud, guest worker program, we identify you as 
frauds," hollered Barbara Coe, a sponsor of California's anti-immigrant 
Proposition 187.

Gilchrist explained why the Minutemen were turning against old friends. 
"There comes a point when someone has to make a stand," he said.

Seconds later, the Minutemen spied the pair of Nazis marching toward 
them. "Nazis, go home!" Gilchrist called out, suddenly regaining his 
sense of partisan loyalty. "I don't want them in my party."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020802347.html?nav=hcmodule
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20060209/7188a532/attachment.htm