At RNC, Change Means Bashing Bush

In deciding on a new chairman, Republican National Committee members are wrestling with ambivalence about George W. Bush, the Washington Post reports. Incumbent Mike Duncan, appointed by the former president, faces something of a backlash. Duncan “never criticized Bush when the president was wrong,” says one member. “He’s the agent of the establishment, and we need a change in personnel.”

To these party faithful, the president’s sins (beside his unpopularity) were his advocacy of an immigration compromise, and last year’s Wall Street bailout. “Most of us strongly supported the Bush administration through the entire two terms, but in the last few months, this bailout and the abandonment of capitalism really kind of sealed it,” says a member. (More George W. Bush stories.)