Once I Was Blind

From The Business, a conservative British paper comes this astonishing quote:

This newspaper is second to none in its pro-American sentiments; in the early Bush years it devoted much ink to defending the President against the often malevolent and ignorant attacks of a congenitally anti-American European media. But we know a lost cause when we see one: the longer President Bush occupies the White House the more it becomes clear that his big-government domestic policies, his preference for Republican and business cronies over talented administrators, his lack of a clear intellectual compass and his superficial and often wrong-headed grasp of international affairs – all have done more to destroy the legacy of Ronald Reagan, a President who halted then reversed America’s post-Vietnam decline, than any left-liberal Democrat or European America-hater could ever have dreamt of. As one astute American conservative commentator has already observed, President Bush has morphed into the Manchurian Candidate, behaving as if placed among Americans by their enemies to do them damage.

(Filched from Andy Sullivan)

But, wait, there's more:

This [announcement of 200 billion for Katrina aid] merely completed Mr Bush’s demise among America’s wisest conservatives, who have always regarded his big-government conservatism as the greatest betrayal of all. Nor is it just the White House that is contaminated by it: when senior Republican leaders in Congress, who have presided over an orgy of public spending and pork-barrel, claimed that there was no fat left to cut in federal spending and that “after 11 years of Republican majority we’ve pared it down pretty good”, it was clear that the inmates had indeed taken over the asylum.

And, finally, I loved this line: "There is now a distinctive fin de regime stink about Republican Washington."

Aren't the British just the greatest writers?

Wander over to the NRO, too, and you'll find an inordinate amount of Bush-bashing--even among some of his most servile supporters. None other than Kathryn Jean Lopez had this to say about Bush's testimony on behalf of Harriet Miers this week:

The president just took some questions. To sum up his message: She's my girl. She's a good girl. Trust me.

I hate this groaning-when-the-president speaks reflex I've had all week on this issue.

Kevin Drum sent over his condolences and welcomed KJL to the fold.

Forget Miers, conservatives are now saying things about the President's qualifications, that some of us were saying before he was elected the first time. Still, at this point in the game, there's not much thrill left in being able to say, "I told you so."