William F. Buckley: The waning of the GOP.

Like the proverbial ad man says about everyone listening when E. F. Hutton speaks, many in the GOP listen when William F. Buckley speaks. So it is with his dire warning about the waning of the GOP. Mr. Buckley lays the blame on "[t]he political problem of the Bush administration" which he says "is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue", as "[t]he opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question." Mr. Buckley finds that "[i]t is simply untrue that we are making decisive progress in Iraq" and likens the Iraq insurgency to "[w]hen the Romans were challenged by Christianity, Rome fell" and to "... the eventual collapse of Prohibition because there wasn't any way the government could neutralize the appetite for alcohol, or the resourcefulness of the freeman in acquiring it." Pessimistically, Mr. Buckley is correct in finding that "[t]here are grounds for wondering whether the Republican Party will survive this dilemma."

I suppose only time will tell. But it seems rather obvious to me that Iraq will continue to be a drain on the political fortunes of President Bush in particular -- and Republicans in general; perhaps worse than during the last elections -- unless the Iraq dilemma is quickly solved.

That's my opinion. Go ahead and have your say.