Good Stuff From Pres. Bush

Bush drives the left insane and he makes conservatives angry. We think he isn't conservative enough and the left thinks he is way too far right. But it's nice sometimes to remember why we voted for him. He is a man of principle. From The American Enterprise Institute, first on the culture of life and stem cell research:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I told the American people I believe in a culture of life. I believe a healthy society is one that protects the most vulnerable among us. And clearly, the most vulnerable among us are those who aren't born yet. Obviously, abortion is a very controversial subject, and it's one that creates a lot of emotions.

I try to diffuse the emotions by saying, look, good people disagree on the issue, I understand that. But throughout my presidency, I have tried to help advance the culture of life. And one of the really classic tensions between the culture of life is that with science. And it's -- Leon Kass instructed me throughout this process that tensions existed for a long time, and will continue to exist.

And the fundamental question with stem cells is, do you destroy life to save life? And it's a difficult issue for a lot of people. I came down on the side that there are other opportunities available to save lives other than the destruction of life. And secondly, I was concerned about using taxpayers' money that would end up destroying life. There's a lot of people in our country that don't want their money spent for that purpose.

I developed a policy which I thought sounded rational. And that is there have been some stem cells lines already developed, embryonic stem cell lines developed prior to this decision, therefore we should go forward with research on them -- but from that point forward, no destruction of life with federal money. Since then, adult skin cells have been used to develop the equivalent of embryonic stem cells. And so science has advanced, and at the same time, we were able to stake a claim for the culture of life. It was a very emotional issue. And that's what happens when you confront controversial topics.

And I believe the President should have a core set of beliefs and stand on those beliefs.

And you may not agree with his immigration stance, but he is right on the money on this, and we Republicans would do well to pay attention:

I'm a little concerned about the tone of the immigration debate, labeling our party as "anti"-people. It's one thing to say they want the border enforced, and I understand that. But if a group of people think that a political party is against them, it doesn't matter what else you stand for. And the tone, in my judgment, at times got to be "anti." At one point in our history we had too many Jewish people and too many Italians. I don't know if you remember that. And it was -- I'm just confident people were saying, I can't believe this is the America that I came to live in where I'm "anti" -- people are "anti"-me.

And so we're going to have to work, like, with the Latino vote to say, we care about you, we hear you, and we share your values -- faith and family, small businesses, military vets or, you know, disproportionate -- more Latinos serve as a percentage of their -- of population in the military than any other group, if I'm not mistaken.