Gresham Barrett: Not Good to Be a Conservative Republican in Washington Now
 US Rep. Gresham Barrett
“If you are a conservative Republican, and if you are in Washington right now, it ain’t too good,” Barrett said, relating how he just voted against the largest budget in history passed by the House, which contains a $643 billion tax increase. It increases spending. It increases unfunded liabilities and grows the government, he said. President Bush has said he will veto the budget, and the House will get another look at it.
“In the short term, I don’t think history is going to be very kind to George Bush,” Barrett said, “but I think in the long term it will show that he stood in the gap in this nation when we needed someone to stand in the gap. He is one of the finest men; I don’t always agree with him, and I have told him that, but he is one of the finest, most honorable Christian men I have ever met.”
Barrett spoke about his hopes to make South Carolina energy independent. Fifty-four percent of South Carolina energy comes from nuclear, he said, and the state can be an energy leader, whether it is nuclear, clean coal, bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, wind, solar or hydrogen.
Barrett, who returned from visiting Iraq and Afghanistan three weeks earlier, said “It is unconscionable for me to know that we could possibly have a president of the United States, Barack Obama, who has never been to Iraq and who has never been to Afghanistan.” You cannot know what is going on over there until you see it firsthand, he said.
Barrett praised Gen. David Petraeus, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, for the relative security in Iraq including Anbar province. “The soldiers, the sailors, the airmen make you all proud.”
Barrett said that the 2008 race is split right down the middle as far as ideology goes. “If you support less government, if you support less taxes, if you support overhauling the tax code, if you support keeping the country safe, if you support you making the decisions in health care, you making the decisions with your children, you making the decisions with your family, John McCain is the clear choice.
“If you support higher taxes, if you support more government, if you support universal health care, socialized medicine, if you support the government telling you what you can do and how you can do it … Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton are your choice.”
He predicted that it would be hard for the Republicans to take back the House in 2008, though he thinks the party can pick up some seats. In the Senate he predicted the GOP would lose two or three seats. He hopes for a Republican president with veto power and a House that can sustain a veto.
Barrett is often spoken of to succeed Gov. Mark Sanford when his term ends in 2011.
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