Bush, Once Party-Builder, Leaves Republicans Weakened, Worried

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLEVpghgS04Y&refer=home

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Representative Tom Davis, a veteran Republican campaign strategist, sees one bright spot for his party's prospects in 2008: President George W. Bush's term will be drawing to a close.

Many Republicans blame Bush's pursuit of the Iraq war for putting them in the minority in 2006 and fear further losses in 2008. Increasingly, they're looking past Bush at a perilous future.

``The face of the Republican Party changes in about 12 months,'' said Davis, a Northern Virginia lawmaker who formerly headed the National Republican Congressional Committee. ``There's no question that the president at this point has dragged our brand name down.''

Davis was part of a group of 11 Republican House members who met with Bush and senior administration officials May 8 to deliver a blunt message: rank-and-file support for the war is fading amid growing concern that the party's embrace of Bush policies may imperil its future.

The longing for a break with Bushism is a far cry from the hopes the Texan stirred with his 2000 victory. Casting himself as a party-builder, Bush envisioned a political realignment that would make Republicans the nation's ruling majority.

Most Republicans did more than enough to show their own hypocritical, greedy, thieving, bigoted, sexist. elitist true colors.