GOP Candidates Must Diverge From Bush

Again, the solution is simple.

GOP candidates can blast the president for blowing through tax dollars like a drunken sailor on shore leave. The candidates just have to mention three major policy initiatives of this administration: the No Child Left Behind Act, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the Medicare Modernization Act.

Easy talking points come to mind to rally conservatives. Our government has become a behemoth that bilks taxpayers in favor of large corporations. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the horror of inefficient and wasteful government -- before and after the disaster. Why not utilize the disaster to highlight government failure? Then talk about how average citizens accomplished much more than the government ever did with fewer resources.

It is even possible to criticize President Bush's tax cuts. Not because tax cuts have no benefit, but rather the argument could be made that no president has cut taxes during a time of war. This move, while welcome at other times, merely put the burden of the "War on Terror" on our children and grandchildren. I made this point last week.

Our government has experienced another debilitating problem -- political scandals involving corruption. How can conservatives preach to their party when so much money has been wasted on absurd earmarks and been funneled to the lobbyists on K Street? The GOP has allowed the Democrats to take the upper hand on lobbyist reform, rather than leading on it.