Done With Hugh

It is with sad tidings that I call your attention to the removal of Hugh Hewitt's blog from the MoltenThought BlogRoll to the right.

Hugh Hewitt is the man we consider to be the BlogFather, for he inspired this effort as he inspired so many others. Unfortunately, he cannot be recommended any longer by this blog.

The fact is, this has been a long time coming.

The first sign was Hugh urging conservatives to support RINO Arlen Specter in his primary over true-blue conservative Pat Toomey. Specter showed his colors shortly after his victory with the infamous Gang of 14 deal.

Then Hewitt supported the Dubai Ports deal, which would have put the completely unreliable United Arab Emirates, whose princes memorably rode on horseback with America's most bitter enemy, in control of port security for the United States.

Next, Hewitt supported Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, despite her obvious lack of qualifications and her lack of conservative credentials.

In short, at every juncture where Hewitt had to choose between Republicans and conservatives, Hugh chose Republicans.

And despite his counsel, we see how such things contributed to the alienation of the party's base and its electoral defeat in 2006.

Since then, Hewitt wrote "A Mormon in the White House", a Mitt Romney hagiography, and has become a mouthpiece for the Romney candidacy. All well and good, but Hewitt also has suggested that those conservatives who oppose Romney do so out of religious bigotry.

And then Hugh Hewitt, Republican jersey-waver, launches this slimy attack on Fred Thompson.

And that, as they say, was the last straw.

Like many conservatives, WordGirl and I are very underwhelmed by the GOP field for 2008. All of the frontrunners are moderate to liberal Establishment Republicans. They have no conservative credentials whatsoever (McCain having squandered his pandering to the media with McCain-Feingold, on interrogation techniques, on immigration, and on judges). We face the prospect in 2008 of having to hold our noses and vote for the man who will likely split the Reagan coalition up for good.

Republican moderates and liberals don't care. They want the party purged of conservatives and will suffer minority party status to do it, just as Bob Michel happily did. Worse comes to worst, the Olympia Snowes, Arlen Specters, Chuck Hagels, and Lindsay Grahams of the world can switch parties without blinking an eye and retain the power they crave.

It doesn't matter that America is at war, and that putting a weak moderate or liberal into the Commander-in-Chief's seat will result in us losing it.

It doesn't matter that the GOP's electoral successes are directly tied to the appeal of conservatism.

It doesn't matter that liberalism has been so discredited over the last generation that Democrats claim to be insulted when you call them a liberal.

And Establishment hacks like Hugh Hewitt will continue to do anything possible, no matter how slimy and reprehensible, to put forth their hair-helmeted empty-suited empty-headed nonconservatives for the top offices in the land while shunting true conservatives to the sidelines, to be allowed on the field only when endorsements are required.

The Grand Old Party is fast becoming a Potemkin party, thanks to unscrupulous hypocrites like Hewitt.

Republicans won't deserve to return to power until they once again exercise it in the service of time-honored conservative principles, and not just for the benefit of high party officials and their favored bootlickers.