Bush Fatigue

I'm a big fan of the president, and have supported most of what he's done in office. I have had my disagreements, including such things as having Teddy Kennedy write the education bill, signing McCain-Feingold, the runaway spending, the Medicare prescription plan, and now the Miers nomination. Those are problems, but on most of the big issues, the president has been right on the mark.

However, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I'm starting to suffer symptoms of a malady which seems to be showing up in other conservatives - Bush fatigue. The Dems have been suffering from this since about Day 2 of the Bush presidency, but it's a fairly new phenomenon among Republicans.

We're now in the 5th year of the Bush presidency, and those of us who support him have been through a lot. Think back for a minute:

• The 2000 election and Florida fiasco
• Tax cut battles
• The Jeffords defection which handed the Senate back to the Dems
• 9/11
• Afghanistan and the Taliban
• The 2002 mid-term elections, the Wellstone memorial rally and recapturing the Senate
• The invasion and ongoing war in Iraq
• Michael Moore and the Dixie Chicks
• Rathergate
• 2004 election, MoveOn and the 529's
• The judicial confirmation battles and the gang of 14
• Katrina and Cindy Sheehan
• 1,572 HolyCoast posts since 9/15/04

There are probably a lot of other battles you remember, and I think after all these many fights, even the loyalists get tired. After standing firm with Bush all this time, the last thing conservatives expected was to have the president, who has never dodged a fight before, suddenly go wobbly and nominate Miers to the Supreme Court, a move which total undercut many on the right who were actually spoiling for a fight over the future of the court.

I must admit that there's probably an element of "what have you done for me lately" in the current dissatisfaction being expressed by some conservatives. And maybe if Miers turns out to be a shining star in the hearings, all will be forgiven. I would certainly hate to see this presidency go into lame-duck status, especially when there's still plenty of time in the second Bush term to get some important things done. However, nothing substantive will get done without a motivated base rallying for the cause, and right now, many members of the base are feeling a lot less motivated.