Is there any part of the Bush legacy that GOP candidates will embrace?

Consider the Republican debate last week in New Hampshire. The candidates spoke almost entirely in boilerplate conservative terms, endorsing spending cuts, tax cuts, sweeping regulatory rollbacks, a crackdown on illegal immigration and devolving as much power as possible back to the states.

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That’s a far cry from the agenda Bush ran on in 2000, and it’s not enough to satisfy some Bush alums who remain convinced the party needs a “robust domestic agenda,” as former Freedom Corps Director John Bridgeland put it…

“I worry that there’s a temptation to denigrate government, that skepticism toward government becomes a sort of corrosive cynicism about government,” said Wehner, noting that Washington can be a force for good on such matters as combating disease in Africa.

And many Bushies believe the party’s continued refusal to make a deal on immigration reform and the nativist tone of some conservative activists will consign the GOP to irrelevance as the country’s changing demographics take hold over the long-term.

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