PERSPECTIVErn. ^ WETHE^ ^ ^ Srn^^ ^sr J^wrnTurn to the Dark Sidernby Thomas FlemingrnAs members of the House of Representatives were movingrntoward impeachment hearings that should make Bill Clintonrn—whatever the outcome—one of the most infamous politiciansrnin American history, Republicans in both houses of Congressrndecided to give the President everything he was askingrnfor—more federally funded teachers to corrupt the childrenrnand $18 billion of boodle for the IMF, justified by a blusteringrnDick Armey as a victory: From now on, the better-funded IMFrnwill have to do its dirty deeds in public! The Republicans alsorngave presidential hit-man Richard Holbrooke a free hand bothrnto expel the beleaguered remnant of Christians in Kosovo andrnto saddle the rest of the Serbs with a dictator they do not want.rnWorst of all, perhaps, is the Department of Health and HumanrnSer’ices plan—supported, apparently, by Henry Hyde —rnto set up a national computerized network to track down parentsrnwho do not make court-ordered child support payments.rnLike so many other national-socialist schemes, the crusadernagainst dead-beat dads is a gift of the “family values” conservativesrnwho can justify any government outrage so long as it is “forrnthe children.”rnRepublicans thought that by playing the impeachment cardrnthey would ensure the return of even more Republicans tornCongress —an exercise in strategic brilliance that cost NewtrnCingrich the speakership. But since the conservative freshmenrnare unlikely to turn out any better than the classes of 1996 andrn1994, rank-and-file conservative voters cannot be blamed for sittingrnthis one out, helping to make this the lowest turn-out in 40rnyears. Some conseratives here in Illinois could not even makernup their minds to vote against Carol Moseley-Braun. Allegedlyrnvenal, self-evidently shipid, and blatantly leftist, the nation’s firstrnblack female senator does her best to stick by her principles andrnrepresent the leftists and minority groups who voted for her.rnThe same cannot be said of a single Republican who ran forrna major office in this state. In the Senate race, Republican PeterrnFitzgerald, who learned how to “moderate” his defense ofrnSecond Amendment rights, gained the endorsement of thernChicago Tribune. Gubernatorial candidate George Ryan,rnwhen he was not defending his record as the secretary of staternwhose employees sold commercial driver’s licenses to unqualifiedrnaliens, attacked his Democratic opponent for not supportingrngun control. Until recently, Ryan was considered a pawn ofrnthe NRA, but whatever the issue, the motto of Illinois Republicansrnis “Retreat from the sound of the guns.”rnThink back, my loyal conservative friends, and try to recall arnconservative candidate for national office who kept his majorrncampaign promises after the election, who did not become suddenlyrnrespectable once he saw the lay of the land. Robert Taftrnis not an acceptable answer: He died before there was a conservativernmovement. What is the point of putting Republicans inrnoffice, even self-declared conservatives, if they are going to behavernlike leftists? Not moderates, not liberals, but leftists. Thernanswer given by the good men who continue to support thernCOP usually rings the changes on “Politics is the art of compromise”rnand “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and “We just havernto get more conservatives on the Supreme Court.” To answerrna cliche with a cliche: “We’re going to hell in a handbasket, andrnthe conservatives are selling us fans. And the fans are made inrnChina. And they don’t work.”rn”But free hade, open borders, and the New International Order,”rngoes the reply, “are all clauses in the new conservativerncreed.” Pat Buchanan’s friends insist that this new conservativerninternationalism is, at best, the result of a misunderstanding or,rnat worst, the product of a conspiracy to take over the right. I amrnnot at all sure that this is a debate worth carrying on. Who isrnand who is not a “conservative” is one of those conversationalrntopics that should have been exhausted some time before 1984,rnand a recent article by Andrew Sullivan makes it clear that inrnthe war of words, leftists have won the copyright to the namern10/CHRONICLESrnrnrn