STILL CARRYING THE TORCH

The latest contribution to the Bushies-vs.-Perry and is-Perry-a-Bush-clone? narratives is here, from today's New York Times. There's not much new in it, but there is one silly bit of speculation about right-wingers (garbled syntax left unedited):

To the degree that conservatives make a psychic or political link between Mr. Perry and Mr. Bush, could also undercut Mr. Perry's otherwise solid appeal to members of the Tea Party movement, many of whom feel that Mr. Bush betrayed their principles by becoming a big-government conservative.

That's a crock. I've said this many times, but the vast majority of tea party sympathizers don't really hate George W. Bush, no matter what they tell you. Who the hell do you think bought 2 million copies of Bush's presidential memoir -- liberal Democrats?

Right-wingers say they disapprove of Bush's spending habits for the same reason that Bush himself used to say, "We don't torture" -- not because it's true, but because it's necessary to keep the narrative consistent. Bush's narrative was that we were the good guys fighting a good war in a good way; the teabaggers' narrative is that they hate excessive spenders regardless of party, when the truth is that they really hate liberals and Democrats (with "RINO" Republicans acting as a substitute only when there are no liberals or Democrats around to hate). On this score, Perry has absolutely nothing to worry about.