Disaffected

James Lileks surveys the sorry state of the Republican base:

As long as the war seems to be fought with one eye toward tut-tutting editorials in the French press, the "surge" strategy won't enthuse the base. Instead of having 60 troops forbidden to fire on a mosque that's hiding snipers, now 120 troops will be forbidden...

There's little relief on the domestic front. If there was some grand Rovian scheme to peel off moderate Democrats with pork and candy, it hasn't worked. The federal education budget is up almost 80 percent. The prescription drug plan will cost more than half a trillion dollars over a decade, and Democrats in the last election still ran ads with whimpering seniors who had to sell the house to buy Bufferin.

All the base wants now is the occasional veto. Gosh, he's done it once! He could do it again!

George W. Bush, in short, has turned out to be a bigger spender than any Democratic Congress could ever manage. Worse, he put the icing on it by trying to one-up Slick Willie as a spineless compromiser.

He talked a good talk, but when it came walkin' time he fell flat on his face. Which is unfortunate, because that disaffected base could easily swing the General Election in '08 to a Democratic candidate--and there's no telling what kind of flake they may run up the pole.