"Kennel-Fed Conservative" Brother Buchanan Endorsed Bush But Is Now Barking About What The GOP Is Trying To Feed Him
By John Lofton, Editor
PAT BUCHANAN Should have endorsed Michael Anthony Peroutka but did notIn his 1992 campaign for President, Pat Buchanan always got loud cheers from his backers when he denounced knee-jerk conservatives who stuck with the Republican Party establishment. He likened such folks to dogs. For example, on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" show (3/18/92), he said: "You know, now--but now we're getting a lot of--we're getting a lot of unsolicited advice from the kennel-fed conservatives in Washington. They're saying, 'Pat, you've got to get out. You're hurting the party.' Question--question: How do you hurt the Republican Party by bringing her home to her basic principles?"
An excellent question.
But, alas, when push came to shove in 2004, Brother Pat, in "The American Conservative" magazine, endorsed for President George Bush, a man who in his first term demonstrated, with a vengeance, that he had abandoned the GOP's basic principles. In other words, when it came time to put up or shut up, Brother Pat, his tail between his legs, returned to the Republican Party kennel.
In his Bush endorsement, he said, in part: "Yet in the contest between Bush and Kerry, I am compelled to endorse the President of the United States."
But, of course, Bush and Kerry were NOT the only two candidates in the race for President. There was another candidate for President, the Constitution Party's Michael Anthony Peroutka, a man who, in 2004, believed, and now still believes, virtually everything Pat Buchanan believes. He got no Buchanan endorsement.
Brother Pat also wrote: "As Barry Goldwater said in 1960, in urging conservatives to set aside their grievances and unite, the Republican Party is our home. It is our only hope. If an authentic conservatism rooted in the values of faith, family, community and country is ever again to become the guiding light of national policy, it will have to come through a Republican administration. Prodigal Republicans now understand that their cohabitation with Big Government has brought their country to the brink of ruin and bought them nothing. But if we wish to be involved in the struggle for the soul of the GOP – and we intend to be there – we cannot be AWOL from the battle where the fate of that party is decided."
This, however, is nonsense. And Brother Pat himself proved it was nonsense when he left the Republican Party and ran for President on the Reform Party ticket!
In conclusion, Brother Pat wrote: "There is a final reason I support George W. Bush. A presidential election is a Hatfield-McCoy thing, a tribal affair. No matter the quarrels inside the family, when the shooting starts, you come home to your own."
More hogwash, sad to say.
First, the 2004 Presidential race was NOT a tribal affair. It was a contest in which Pat Buchanan should have been, by his own faith and political positions, compelled to support Michael Anthony Peroutka, the true faith-family- -community-country candidate. But, he did not support Peroutka. Besides, if this race had been a "tribal affair," there was, as I have said, another tribe in the race, the Constitution Party, a Buchananite Party.
Finally, at what point did Brother Pat re-enter the Republican Party "family"? When, exactly, did he, again, consider the GOP kennel to be his "home"? As for his remark about "when the shooting starts," this is just silly. Nobody has been shot at more by official, national Republican Party leaders than Pat Buchanan! They hate his guts and have repeatedly viciously smeared and slandered him.
In any event, Brother Pat is now not going on the paper in his Republican Party kennel. He's balking at what his GOP "family" is trying to feed him -- Big Government, the Harriet Miers nomination and a lot of other things.
In a recent column (9/7/05), he criticized President Bush for signing a $286 billion highway bill containing $24 billion in pork including 6,300 earmarked projects. He criticized a Federal deficit rising toward $400 billion and a trade deficit of $700-800 billion.
Brother Pat writes, presumably with a straight face: "America needs today an authentic conservatism that will end our Asian wars, shed this empire, bring the budgets back into balance, no matter the political cost, and make demands on us all for sacrifices."
Well, better late than never, I guess, as they say – but not really in this case. You blew it, Brother Pat. The Constitution Party's 2004 Presidential candidate Michael Anthony Peroutka represented precisely the kind of "authentic conservatism" you are now barking about and calling for. But, you did not endorse him. So, please, my long-time friend, zip it. You have no credibility on this subject and it's your own fault.
