Romney Inherits Bush Franchise

The announcement that former President George H.W. Bush was re-endorsing the moderate former Massachusetts governor may serve as one more reason for conservatives to continue their opposition to moderate Romney’s presidential ambitions.

The first President Bush, conservatives will need no reminding, shook the Etch A Sketch once he was elected and infamously broke his campaign promise not to raise taxes. Bush’s description of his administration as “kinder and gentler” was really establishment Republican code announcing his plans to begin un-doing the policies of Ronald Reagan.

In this, Bush was aided and abetted by a loyal band of henchmen who went on to serve in the administration of his son, President George W. Bush, and long ago gravitated to Romney as the establishment Republican favorite in the race.

Personnel is policy. Conservatives recall all too vividly that as soon as George H.W. Bush took the oath of office as president he made it clear that Reagan conservatives were not welcome in his administration.

As Tom Pauken, who served on Ronald Reagan's White House staff and later became chairman of the Republican Party of Texas recalls, "A lot of people who had been in the [Reagan] administration were systematically thrown out by the Bush crowd . . . They only wanted people who were more pragmatic . . . moderate . . . middle-of-the-road and establishment Republicans.”

Whatever policies Romney might pursue as president, what conservatives fear as much or more than Romney as president, is the return of those inside-the-Beltway establishment Republicans to the key positions on the White House staff, and in the Cabinet and sub-cabinet appointed positions.

Given the transgressions of conservative principles that transpired after Bush’s purge of conservatives from the inner workings of the federal government that fear is justified — for example, by merely saying in a speech he was committed to “no net loss of wetlands” the first President Bush caused bureaucrats throughout his administration to lurch into action to deprive law-abiding Americans of their property rights and wreak havoc on every farm in the country.

Conservatives expect the same kind of government from Romney’s appointees, many of whom will undoubtedly be alumni of the two Bush administrations.

That George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, would endorse Romney was as predictable as the sunrise.

What is equally predictable is that a Romney administration will bring back into power the same establishment Republicans that brought us no net loss of wetlands, “No Child Left Behind,” “we’re all Keynesians now” federal spending and other decidedly un-conservative policies of past Bush administrations.

Richard A. Viguerie pioneered the use of direct mail in politics. He made it possible for candidates and causes to raise money from millions of small contributors rather than from a few “fat cats.” Read more reports from Richard Viguerie — Click Here Now.