It’s time for a good old-fashioned back-alley slugfest with the president and the Republican party taking on the liberal Democrats and flailing away with everything they’ve got.

President Bush can both recover from the beating he took from his own conservative base as a result of the Harriet Miers fiasco, and establish himself as the kind of warrior the nation needs at a time when the liberals are fighting for their political lives by using every nasty, below-the-belt weapon in their arsenal of slander and deceit. He can deliver the knockout blow and drive these scoundrels out of the political arena forever. He has the power and the ability to be the warrior hero if he’ll use them against his enemies and ours.

He can rejuvenate both his own fortunes and those of his party simply by stepping into the ring and nominating for the Supreme Court a staunch conservative in the mold of Antonin Scalia, daring the Senate liberals to try and block his choice. They can’t - he has the votes he needs to win this fight - but he needs to stop trying to placate the very people who hate and revile him.

For generations the American people have proven over and over again that they love a man who fights for what he believes, even when the odds seem to be against him. They’ll get behind him and give him their full support. On the other hand, they have no respect for anyone who seems namby-pamby about defending what they know is right and just and good.

George Bush is in the White House because the people in a huge majority of states believed he represents the values and virtues they hold dear. They have every right to expect him to do everything in his power to defend those virtues and values – and they expect him to do battle and show no mercy to those who oppose everything they hold dear.

His foes deride those who support America’s traditional values, calling them “right-wing extremists.” He needs to stand up and shout that if being a right-wing extremist means being pro-life, adhering to the Constitution of the United States as it is written and not as some wooly-headed judge wants it to mean, being pro-military and for smaller government and less spending, then he is proud to be a right-wing extremist as defined by the socialist anti-democratic liberals on and off Capitol Hill.

He won election promising to reform Social Security before it is allowed to collapse. He needs to ignore those who say that fight is already lost, and continue to battle for a cause that must be won if the system is to survive.

He promised to reform the tax system that is both unfair and needlessly burdensome. He needs to stick to his guns and keep firing away until he has won the support of a majority of Americans.

In short, George Bush needs to go to the mat on every issue, never giving in and always fighting even when the odds appear to be stacked against him.

This nation exists only because George Washington and his army, vastly outnumbered by the greatest military force on the face of the earth and repeatedly defeated by it in battle after battle, refused to give in. Washington and his army were fighters, and in the end they won because they kept up the fight even when all the odds were stacked against them.

George Bush stands at a crossroads. His standing in the polls is at its lowest point. He has just suffered a serious blow as a result of the Miers affair. Like Washington at Valley Forge, he seems headed for ignominious defeat, carrying his party down with him.

Washington risked everything by going into a fight that seemed hopeless, yet he won a great victory at Trenton and reversed his fortunes and those of his army. He fought and he won because he believed in his cause. And in the end, his cause triumphed.

George Bush now faces his own Valley Forge. It’s time for him to cross his Delaware and take the fight to the enemy. If he does he won’t be alone. As I said, America loves a fighter.

©2005 Mike Reagan. If you’re not a paying subscriber to our service, you must contact us to print or web post this column. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Cari Dawson Bartley email [email protected], (800) 696-7561