Conservative angst

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The sixth year of the Bush administration is shaping up to be conservatism's winter of discontent.

Republicans in Congress recently broke with President Bush on the DP World ports deal. Concerns over the Iraq war, a bloated budget and other issues have produced grumbling across the conservative side of the political spectrum. Combined with the scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, worries are mounting inside the Republican Party as the midterm election season begins.

For Edwin J. Feulner, the irony is obvious. These problems have erupted at a time when the conservative-dominated Republican Party is at its peak of modern power -- controlling both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government and adding two conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

"For a conservative, this ought to be the best of times," said Mr. Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation. "It sure isn't."

The veteran conservative activist laments the continued growth in entitlement programs, including the Bush-backed Medicare prescription drug plan. "We've added the only real new entitlement program since [President Lyndon B. Johnson]," Mr. Feulner said, adding that pork-barrel spending by Congress is also out of control.

But the Heritage chief isn't just grumbling. Along with Doug Wilson, chairman of Townhall.com, Mr. Feulner has authored a book, "Getting America Right: The True Conservative Values Our Nation Needs Today," an "action plan" intended to lead conservatism, and the nation, out of confusion.

"Getting America Right" is organized around six questions that Mr. Feulner and Mr. Wilson say "every citizen and every policy-maker should be asking and answering about every government action or policy that comes up for discussion."

Those questions are:

• Is it the government's business? "The federal government should do only those things that cannot be handled better by a state, a community or an individual," the authors write.

cDoes this measure promote self-reliance? "Programs should help individuals stand on their own."