Bush Republicans

I always hear "real conservatives" claim that "Bush isn't the Republican Party."

As Sheldon Whitehouse said, "If you think your opinion doesn't matter then maybe you should speak louder." Chafee was no classic conservative, and was perhaps the last liberal Republican in national office, but Whitehouse's advice applies to allegedly classic conservative Republicans too, since they gave Bush unprecedented support during the six years where he controlled at least one house.

The Republican congressmen and senators have a lot of back pedaling to do before the GOP goes back to its alleged small government roots; at this point, pretty much every national Republican is a Bush Republican.