Republican Congressman: Bush Destroyed The GOP

Dana Rohrbacher isn’t among those willing to cut George Bush any slack:

Former President George W. Bush is no “class act,” a Republican lawmaker insisted Wednesday. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said Bush had “destroyed” the GOP during his eight years in office in a blunt shot at the former Republican president, who on Tuesday released his book, “Decision Points.”

Rohrabacher tweeted Wednesday:

@MarkRMatthews Bush not class act, destroyed GOP, jailed Ramos & Compean, left us bailouts, gave more power to fed gov & China.

The GOP lawmaker, who won reelection to his fifth term last week, was responding to another conservative on Twitter who called Bush a “class act” for avoiding criticism of President Obama since leaving office. Even in interviews supporting his book, Bush has refused to take any shots at his successor.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rohrbacher has consistently been a strong fiscal conservative, and his political beliefs are rooted in 70s era California libertarianism.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Linda says:

    Rohrabacher tweeted Wednesday:

    @MarkRMatthews Bush not class act, destroyed GOP, jailed Ramos & Compean, left us bailouts, gave more power to fed gov & China.

    ——–
    What a hateful thing to say. The GOP has come back stronger than ever. Sometimes being knocked down makes you come up swinging.

    Bush did not personally jail Ramos and Compean, though he might have been a tad slow at commuting their sentences, he *DID* commute their sentences. Which is something ol’ Dana fails to mention.

    Bush gave us a bailout because he didn’t want a Depression. How much money has Obama tossed around? And how sluggish is the economy since Obama’s bailouts?

  2. An Interested Party says:

    So…I guess Rohrbacher now suffers from Bush Derangement Syndrome…

  3. Herb says:

    It took me a minute to think of who Ramos and Compean are, but then it all came rushing back to me. I’m not sure Rohrbacher is right on the merits. If I remember correctly, Bush wasn’t involved in their prosecution, but he did commute their sentence.

    Which is kind of, you know, the opposite of “jailing” someone.

  4. Gerry W. says:

    What I remember is that it was eight years of seeing our jobs go overseas-when he said free trade is good, our money going to Iraq, and the neglect of the infrastructure. He ran on an ideology of trickle down, he “stayed the course” and ran the economy and both wars into the ground. He also showed how a right wing Christian Conservative thinks, and they don’t think. They just run on an ideology. I lost all respect for republicans.