The conservative civil war continues. When the anti-Miers crowd called for a civil war because they feared the unknown, they sent a clear signal to all elements of the conservative party – get what you can and ignore the other factions. It also sent a message to moderates = you are not true conservatives. The result is natural. What were once strong alliances are now internal battles with no trust in site. The fact is Alito, Miers’ replacement nominee to the Supreme Court, has a lot to be concerned about regarding abortion and other issues (his respect of precedence is most concerning in issues like eminent domain). And now here we are:

House Republican leaders were forced to abruptly pull their $54 billion budget-cutting bill off the House floor yesterday, amid growing dissension in Republican ranks over spending priorities, taxes, oil exploration and the reach of government.

Speaking of Alito, his positions are starting to worry a lot of people.

Some antiabortion groups are starting to wonder whether Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. is as strong an ally of their cause as opponents have depicted him.

Although he has been wholeheartedly embraced by most major conservative groups, those whose sole mission is to restrict and prohibit abortion have reservations about the latest Supreme Court nominee as they learn more about his record on the divisive issue.

Was the Miers civil war worth all this? As predicted the baseless attacks on Meirs knocked down Bush’s already weak support, emboldened the liberals and broke the winning coalition on the right. The anti-miers crowd must begin to make moves to heal the rift they called for. They need to start accepting what they wrought and offering to join forces. Denial is not going to build any bridges.

A battle between House Republican conservatives and moderates over energy policy and federal anti-poverty and education programs left GOP leaders without enough votes to pass a budget measure they had framed as one of the most important pieces of legislation in years.

Virginia has had two Democrat Governors because of the same infighting within conservatives. Unless the far right learns to work with others, it will be taking us all into the minority.

Bush and company are beginning to stage their response to the lunacy of the far right regarding Iraq:

The White House went on the offensive in the debate over the Iraq war yesterday, insisting that U.S. intelligence had compiled a “very strong case” that Saddam Hussein harbored banned weapons and accusing congressional critics of hypocrisy because many of them voted for force three years ago.

Bristling from fresh assaults on its justification for war, the White House dispatched national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley to the briefing room to issue a rebuttal to “the notion that somehow the administration manipulated prewar intelligence about Iraq.” The administration’s judgment on the threat posed by Iraq, he said, “represented the collective view of the intelligence community” and was “shared by Republicans and Democrats alike.”

“Some of the critics today,” Hadley added, “believed themselves in 2002 that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, they stated that belief, and they voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq because they believed Saddam Hussein posed a dangerous threat to the American people. For those critics to ignore their own past statements exposes the hollowness of their current attacks.”

I’ll go one further. Anyone who thinks we could trust the lives of our family and neighbors to Saddam’s judgement when he had WMD technology, connections to terrorists, billions of hidden dollars from the OFF scandal and delusions of being the second coming of God is insane. The democrats want to make that argument? Bring it on.

And Republicans better get serious – because the dems are lining up some potentially strong candidates – like Mark Warner of VA. That includes all those prime senate candidates that backed out of the 2006 election cycle. What makes you think any of us are going to give you folks a second chance to disappoint again? If your heart is not in it unless the win is a given – then you may not be the fighter we want and need.

As a independent conservative I find myself recalling this song:

Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you.

So while the handwringers run around like the proverbial headless chickens, we see examples of sheer bravery and desire to win the day in Condi Rice as she visits Iraq to hold out a hand of respect to the Sunnis:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice invited Sunni Arabs to speak their minds in new voting in Iraq, arguing during a surprise visit Friday that “differences can be a strength.”

That’s how it is done folks. Right into the breach with a determination of mind.

Have a good day folks.