Conservatives Look beyond Bush

By John Harwood
The Wall Street Journal

February 4, 2005

Next week the nation's conservative political activists assemble in Washington for their annual pep rally. The most important question they face isn't officially on the agenda: How much more can be accomplished under George W. Bush?

The question would have sounded silly a year ago, when the re-elected Republican president declared he would spend his political "capital" on the right's longstanding goal of Social Security privatization. Now conservatives are digesting a State of the Union address that instead proposed another bipartisan entitlements commission, among other gestures toward the political center.

Consider the lineup for the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The kickoff speaker is columnist George Will, who has derided as "wonderfully useless" Mr. Bush's prime-time confession that America is addicted to oil.

Later participants hear from Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, who panned Mr. Bush's "missed opportunity" to get tough on illegal immigration and champions those who loathe the administration's "guest-worker" proposal. Former Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia will represent the president's libertarian critics on issues such as the Patriot Act.

" Reining in Spending" will give voice to those unimpressed by Bush-era sprees on Medicare prescription-drug benefits, highways and farm subsidies. Most sobering of all may be "The Entitlement Crash" and "Opportunities for Tax Reform," since Social Security and tax overhaul both have been sidelined.

The conference follows last week's shake-up among House Republicans, which also reflects the challenging terrain. Out is the Hammer, Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas. In is Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, known for working with Democrats on an issue -- education -- in which small-government true believers think Washington has no business meddling. A recent National Review cover story read, "Lost: The GOP House Majority Cast Adrift."

The right recognizes the reduced aspirations of Washington Republicans as a pragmatic adjustment to unfavorable midterm election weather. Conservatives can read polls, too. Yet they are still disappointed considering that Mr. Bush enjoys full Republican control of Congress, as Ronald Reagan didn't when he sought unsuccessfully to shrink Big Government.

Conservatives can find reassurance from the big picture. The U.S. remains a "Right Nation," in the term of British authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge; in last week's Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, a third of Americans called themselves "conservative," while just a quarter said "liberal."

The Bush administration assertively carries conservatives' banner on national security in Iraq and the broader antiterror war. Mr. Bush's domestic pullback helps preserve his strength for that fight -- since 9/11, the most important of his presidency.

And conservatives continue to advance in a different realm -- sometimes loudly as in last week's confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, more often quietly in lower federal courts, where Mr. Bush has now appointed 25% of all sitting judges.