Derb is exactly right on the politics of “compassionate conservatism.” I loathed the term in 2000, but it did put some crimp in the liberal cartoon of feed-the-seniors-Alpo conservatism. It was comical to see how the liberal media routinely insisted “compassionate conservative” was really code for “liberal Republican,” or that any move to the center by the GOP was “sprinkling compassion over the conservatism.” Unfortunately, when you campaign with a slogan like that, you run the risk of being president for four years without a single veto — as has been noted.

The governing equivalent was a comparatively tiny enterprise — set up faith-based initiative shops in five cabinet departments. They tried to run up a legislative version with J.C. Watts, which was strangled in the cradle, by among others, Joe Lieberman, because they put in the poison pill that Christian churches couldn’t discriminate against hiring homosexuals or non-Christians, or face a raft of lawsuits. But the original vision of the Bush gurus was based on the overtly religious notion that coming to Christ, a true conversion and repentance, is more effective than an army of social workers. They cited Teen Challenge, a Texas program with a great record of success. But federal grants for that was not about to be allowed by the atheists at the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. But every conversion no doubt saves us all federal addict money.