Ya know, I have a feeling that he's trying to gently push the concept that he went against the grain with his own party over immigration...that herein lies the silver lining to his presidency that the history books will note.

I dunno, I always got the feeling that he actually does give a damn about fixing illegal immigration (maybe he picked up something in Texas other than the accent ;). I don't doubt that in his mind, at this specific issue at least, he was quite the compassionate one.

Sure, Mr. President. Tell us another one.

OK, he also said it wouldn't take much time to write his memoirs since he is a "type-A personality". That may seem off topic, but the point is he doesn't reflect. He doesn't see the disconnect between his words and his actions. In the case of the anti-immigrant stand, the issue for him is getting that 50+1 majority. "Compassion" is nothing more than a way to frame it.

Conservative: one who thinks torture is dandy, believes that poor people deserve to starve if they can't afford food, and doesn't mind seeing children dying in the street, so long as they weren't threatened with abortion.

Compassionate conservative: one who thinks that the above are good things, and feels for the ones suffering, so long as they can't reach his wallet.

Conservatives are happy to be compassionate as long as it doesn't cost tax money.

It doesn't leave them with much to work with, but they're consistent in their principles. If compassion ISN'T involved (foreign corporate subsidies, tax cuts for the wealthy...) budgets be damned.

The "conservatism" cannot be sacrificed for the "compassionate" half. It's foolish to combine the two into a single concept, but violate either premise, isn't it?

Granted the concept ITSELF may be foolish too, but that's a different argument entirely.

Adding to Carol's definitions:

Republican: someone who believes that human life is sacred -- unless it interferes with corporate profits or tax cuts for millionaires.

As frightening as it sounds, compared to most of the GOP Bush is a compassionate conservative.

Just look at our childhood poverty rate.

And what Jon Parker said.

I don't agree with Parker. Bush isn't compassionate, even compared to the Limbaugh wing. Rather, Bush is marketed as compassionate. Big Difference

if you want to understand conservatives, just remember that life is sacred- until the moment it exits the womb.

George W. Bush; "He has got this great compassion which was not just a slogan, 'compassionate conservative.' It is who he is. It is one of the great things he brought to this office."

On reflection one could very well conclude that the Republican Party with Bush even as far back as Reagan and Bush administration have been the most disastrous Party America has ever had in leadership for decades covered up by Mainstream Media.

Does something sound familiar? As I was watching MSNBC talk about covert operations in American Middle East negotiations, using covert means to an end leads me to Google some history on Iran and the American banking scandals…Why does America use covert operation while we instill in the national press that transparency is paramount and part of the new America…

http://www.newsmakingnews.com/vm,deadly,1991,11,1,04,pt4.htm

Bush's solution to the S&L problem was a bailout, which he announced in February 1989. By that time, the government had paid out $40 billion to try to rescue failing S&L’s.

This involved the issuance of $50 billion in new bonds through a financing corporation, that was a subsidiary of the new Resolution Trust Corporation. Congress passed Bush’s legislation in August 1989. The RTC began selling off properties belonging to the failed S&L’s and speculators, many of them insiders of the S&L's, bought them for pennies on the dollar. The victims of the deceit soon caught on to the game and voiced their anger. Hoping to dampen the outcry, the Justice Department began to prosecute some of the S&L perpetrators. But the effort seemed futile as the scandal grew. The bail out itself began looking like a fraud. As reported by Nathaniel Blumberg, in The Bush Family in the 90's

Again covert operations involved incrediable scandals in the Reagan / Bush administration. Also George Bush is totally involved in secret money deals with the Arabs… during a war…Some people call that treason…

I'm sick of Republicans playing the God card. Believe me, Jesus is no Republican.

"Compassionate Conservative": A PR slogan a group of political zealots assign to themselves as they distainfully mock "Bleeding Heart Liberals".

Psychopaths don't have compassion by definition.

If fairness to Bush, has any major media outlet or member of Congress got in his face about breaking the law?

Everyone stands up to him like they are going through the motions to satisfy an interest group. Has anyone really said, you are behaving immorally? You're behaving in an evil manner?

The real compassionate conservative in American political life is Jimmy Carter.

Bush's compassion doesn't go much further than, "Let them eat cake".

Not to mention the environment.
Sell off public lands & resources to campaign contributors, cronies and lobbyists. Let polluting industries have free reign (he even joked about that one during his last trip to Europe).
I guess that's being compassionate to them.
Yes, he's truly a man of God as he's always quick to point out.

They're not trying to market this to Mexican immigrants who are the last people who read or see this nonsense. They're trying to market it to seniors, a demo they can't afford to lose anymore of and one of the few demos who actually got anything compassionate from them: government subsidized prescription drugs.

tomeck: Look, I hate the Romans as much as anyone, but he did break with his party over immigration, and he's consistently made minoirty appointments to top positions -- odious ones to be sure, but they were minority appointments.

Yeah, he's better than the rank and file, as much as I hate to admit it.

To underscore the other comments here, I recall that during the Terry Schiavo fiasco there was an indigent patient in Texas on life support who lacked adequate insurance or any means to pay her bills. When the hospital pulled the plug on her there was no outcry from the compassionate conservatives; keeping her on life support would have cut into the hospital's profits.

Hey, when a credit crunch this fall threatened the welfare of some of our nation's neediest and most vulnerable billionaires, Bush's compassion sprang into action. Within days, the Treasury and Fed mercifully stepped up to the plate and made sure that these unfortunate souls didn't go without their $25 million bonuses. God bless us, every one.

Maybe it's just me, but bombing countries and killing thousands of civilians comes off as less compassionate and more war-criminal-ish.

Enjoy life outside of the bubble, George. Life won’t be much fun with millions of people trying to express how they really fell about you as a President and as a person. Perhaps you could have a “Tommy room”(a place where you cannot see, hear or feel how roundly despised you are) built into your new digs in Dallas.

Who knows what W’s response will be to the billowing waves of disapprobation which will follow in his wake, everywhere he goes. There is a real chance he will resume drinking. If anyone ever had a reason to tie one on it has to be GW Bush. “In vino, veritas” may end up being W’s epitaph if he resumes drinking and the awful realization of how disastrous his eight years have been for the USA becomes unbearable.

Out of office the facade of toughness will slowly go away, replaced over time by a surliness kept fresh by an inner acknowledgment that his fiercest critics were right about him all along.

"And yet, Bush is still using it, as if the line hadn't been thoroughly discredited."

Bless his heart, HE doesn't know they've been discredited. He lives in a bubble where he's only told what he wants to hear.

Be interesting to see if he can maintain that bubble from January 20th on.

From a Molly Ivins article for Mother Jones Magazine way back in 2003:
"Bush's lies now fill volumes. He lied us into two hideously unfair tax cuts; he lied us into an unnecessary war with disastrous consequences; he lied us into the Patriot Act, eviscerating our freedoms. But when it comes to dealing with those less privileged, Bush's real problem is not deception, but self-deception."

I think she pretty much hit it right on the head.

So here Benen you criticize Bush for using torture but in another report support Obama's unwillingness to investigate and hold the Bushies responsible for torture.