Ouch!!

The GOP is starting to turn on itself. This was published today in a very right-leaning newspaper -- McCain bashes Bush, in no uncertain terms. Here are some excerpts:

EXCLUSIVE: McCain lambastes Bush years
by Joseph Curl and Stephen Dinan
WashingtonTimes.com, October 23, 2008

Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers...

"Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously," Mr. McCain said...

He rejected Mr. Bush's use of issuing "signing statements" when he signs bills into law, in which the president has suggested that he would ignore elements of the bills, labeling them potentially unconstitutional...And Mr. McCain emphatically rejected Mr. Bush's claims of executive privilege, often used to shield the White House from scrutiny...'I don't agree with [Vice President] Dick Cheney's allegation that he's part of both the legislative and the executive branch,' he said.

"I think, frankly, the problem was, with a Republican Congress, that the president was told by the speaker and majority leaders and others, 'Don't veto these bills, we need this pork, we need this excess spending, we need to grow these bureaucracies.'

He bashes Obama alot too, but the Bush stuff is more fun ;-) Apparently this is part of a strategy to distance himself from Bush. And the Bushies are none too happy about it (although I have a feeling the White House signed off on the policy). Here is a response on Politico.com from "one of the "most senior Republican strategists in the land" (Rove ??):

“Lashing out at past Republican Congresses instead of Pelosi and Reid, and echoing your opponent's attacks on you instead of attacking your opponent, and spending 150,000 hard dollars on designer clothes when congressional Republicans are struggling for money, and when your senior campaign staff are blaming each other for the loss in The New York Times [Magazine] 10 days before the election, you’re not doing much to energize your supporters. The fact is, when you’re the party standard-bearer, you have an obligation to fight to the finish...”

McCain tags Bush, GOP Congress
Johnathan Martin
Politico.com, Oct 23, 2008