From John Fund:
Al Regnery, the publisher of The American Spectator, says the Miers nomination could become a galvanizing event for the conservative movement similar to the stand that sent Barry Goldwater on his journey to remake the Republican Party. In April 1957, Goldwater gave a Senate floor speech attacking President Eisenhower's conception of "modern Republicanism," as something resembling "a dime- store New Deal." In an echo of today's conservative complaints about the spending excesses of the Bush White House, Goldwater warned that Ike's "big budget concept" would subvert the American economy. "That speech led to Goldwater's 1964 candidacy and thus to Ronald Reagan's famous speech that year," says Mr. Regnery, who is writing a book on conservatism's past 50 years.
From his lips .... I think this is precisely the point that the party loyalists missed during the quag-Miers fight. Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers broke the social compact between his White House and his base, providing the tipping point at which cumulative dissatisfaction with Bush's governing style and decisions boiled over. To party loyalists there could be no greater sin than questioning the leader of their party; to movement activists, however, the purpose of a political party is not to perpetuate itself in office but to achieve political goals. If the party refuses to use its power to advance the agenda, the party has forfeited its claim on our loyalty.
