Right On Bush Honesty

Jonathan Chait:
The right discovers Bush's 'honesty' - Los Angeles Times:

". . .It's funny. I remember when Bush insisted that he wanted to bring the parties together to pass a patients' bill of rights, even as he arm-twisted Republicans who favored such a bill into renouncing it. I remember when he insisted that lower-income workers reaped the biggest share of his tax cuts. I remember when he presented his stem cell position as a way to dramatically expand research opportunities. One could say that misleading rhetoric was the hallmark of Bush's political style. But if you said that two years ago, you were a rabid Bush-hater.

Now the immigration debate, which has turned the right against itself, has provoked a kind of right-wing glasnost. Former Bush loyalists are discovering all sorts of unpleasant things about him, and each other.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal, which favors more open immigration, sadly noted that the party's 'restrictionists still aren't satisfied' with Bush's compromise plan.

'Bush attempted to meet his own party's restrictionists halfway,' the editors fumed, 'and they are saying it still isn't enough.'

Conservative Republicans refusing to compromise! Can you imagine? . . ."