| 23 | 29 | 5 |
| 2002 | 48 | 19 | 14 | 8 |
| 2003 | 85 | 17 | 51 | 5 |
| 2004 | 56 | 56 | 27 | 4 |
| 2005 | 70 | 27 | 27 | 6 |
Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado, No Mercy: How Conservative Think Tanks and Foundations Changed America’s Social Agenda (New York: Temple, 1997). Work product of the conservative think tanks, however, has become notably predictable, and they are not generating great ideas; rather, they “produce studies with one or more preordained conclusions: that liberal solutions will only increase the power and oppressiveness of government and bureaucracy; that they deprive worthy citizens of their liberty, or that they benefit criminals at the expense of victims; and, most often, that more laissez-faire and lower taxes for business is always the best policy.” Herbert J. Gans, “Tanking the Right,” The Nation (January 27, 1997), 28.
Notes, telephone conversation with Senator Barry M. Goldwater, March 1995.
Barry M. Goldwater with Jack Casserly, Goldwater (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 386.
Ralph Z. Hallow, “Weyrich fears ‘cordial’ ties between GOP and the Right,” Washington Times (June 17, 2005) at http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050617-125248- 4355r.htm.
E. J. Dionne, “Roasting the Rightest of the Right; Conservatives Turn Out for Tough Guy Weyrich,” Washington Post (April 2, 1991), E-1.
Jeff Jacoby, “The Christian Right’s Double Shocker,” Boston Globe (April 26, 2001), A-15.
For example, when Michael Deaver left the Reagan White House to set up a highly lucrative lobbying operation—with Canada, South Korea, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia among his A-list of clients—Paul Weyrich called for a special prosecutor to investigate charges of conflicts of interest. (Martin Tolchin, “Conservatives Say Deaver Case Hurts Reagan,” New York Times [May 1, 1986], A-21.) Although he could not back it up with specifics, Weyrich later shot down Bush I’s nomination of Senator John Tower to be Secretary of Defense because he opposed Tower’s alleged drinking and spending time with women “to whom he was not married.” (Suzanne Garment, “The Tower Precedent,” Commentary [May 1989], 44.) Weyrich was relentless in his attacks against Bill Clinton. (Anonymous, New York Times [November 12, 1995], 6-37.) However, Weyrich wrote thoughtful op-eds critical of conservatives and the Reagan White House, following revelations about the Iran/Contra debacle. He explained that “our government was designed not to play great-power politics but to preserve domestic liberty” through “separation of powers, congressional checks on executive authority, the primacy of law over raison d’etat—all of these were intentionally built into our system.” He continued, “The Founding Fathers knew a nation with such a government could not play the role of a great power. They had no such ambition for us—quite the contrary.” Weyrich also raised a problem in 1987 that remains to this day: “If the executive does what it must in the international arena, it violates the domestic rules. If the Congress enforces those rules, as it is supposed to do, it cripples us internationally.” Paul M. Weyrich, “A Conservative Lament; After Iran, We Need to Change Our System and Grand Strategy,” Washington Post (March 8, 1987), B-5.
Anonymous, New York Times (November 12, 1995), 6-37.
