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To See Root of GOP's Problems, Look to the Top

Noonan: Maintaining bonds to White House a recipe for disaster

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted May 16, 2008 3:31 PM CDT

(Newser) – It’s too late for the Republican Party to break with President Bush, Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal, and that will translate to heavy losses come November. The time for the GOP to call out the administration has passed, she argues. “What two years ago would have been honorable and wise will now look craven.”

Democratic infighting is drawing attention away from the Republicans. "The brightest of them see no immediate light," Noonan writes. "They're frozen, not like a deer in the headlights but a deer in the darkness." One Congressional leader compares the party to “an airplane flying right into a mountain.” Sure, the GOP still has “the big microphone,” he says, but Bush has “swallowed it.”

In this Aug. 17, 2004 file photo, President Bush walk past a Chinook helicopter (AP Photo)

U.S. President George W. Bush, right, and U.S. first lady Laura Bush wave goodbye before getting on Air Force One at Ben Gurion Airport. (AP Photo)

U.S. President George Bush disembarks from a helicopter before getting on Air Force One at Ben Gurion Airport. (AP Photo)

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