Iraq continues to be a mess with a high potential for catastrophe. William F. Buckley, the old conservative lion, says, "One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed." William Kristol of the new conservative guard that is the Weekly Standard asks "Can the Bush administration continue to charge ahead? Does it have the will--and the competence--to lead the nation for the next three years toward victory in the long war against radical Islamism?"

When even your stalwart defenders raise the question of your competence, the jig is up. Iraq may not necessarily end up in a bloody civil war creating an unstable state ripe for Islamic fundamentalists to create a base from. But it certainly is at quite a risk to become that thanks to Bush's decision to invade Iraq and once invading it, occupying it incompetently.

Conservatives are finally waking up to the danger in which he has placed their movement. Rich Lowry in National Review writes, "The civil war that has been averted would be a catastrophe on all levels. It would be a political catastrophe for the Bush administration. If it happened before November, Republicans would lose Congress, and Bush's presidency would be effectively over."

And this is just Iraq. Bush and the Republicans controlling Congress have ruined their party's reputation for spending constraint. Bush, rather than favoring limited federal government power, has advocated an activist and intrusive government across a host of issues. Conservatives are only now waking up to the disaster that Bush poses for their movement. Should the economy turn south it will take a generation to recover.