Some Key Conservatives Uneasy About Bush

Sounds ridiculous, right? Not really. . .

Some Republicans fear angry conservatives will stay home in November, undercutting Bush’s re-election bid.

‘I don’t think there’s any question that there is growing restiveness in the Republican base about this war,’ said Halper, the co-author of a new book, ‘America Alone: The Neoconservatives and the Global Order.’

Some Republicans dismiss the rift as little more than an inside-the-Beltway spat among rival factions of the GOP intelligentsia. Indeed, conservatives nationwide are still firmly behind Bush. A Pew Research Center poll last month found that 97 percent of conservative Republicans favored Bush over Kerry.

But anger is simmering among some conservatives.

That 97% number isn’t because conservatives are behind Bush; it’s because they dislike John Kerry. Furthermore, conservatives are angry. Angry about court judges not getting in, angry because of massive spending in a Republican Congress, angry over unchecked judicial activism by the courts, angry over a neo-conservative agenda. . .

The litany continues.

Bush/Cheney may indeed have to focus on the weeks leading to the convention on shoring up the conservative base. At least in Virginia, the danger of conservatives staying at home is real.