Conservative Crackup Continues

The American Conservative Union is launching an online magazine aimed at "revitalizing limited government conservatism." ACU Vice Chairman Donald Devine, who will edit Conservative Battleline, explains:

The $7 trillion unfunded liability of the new Medicare prescription drug bill created by a Republican Congress and signed by President George Bush this week is the straw that breaks the camel's back, as it is the largest expansion of non-defense discretionary spending since the Great Society….I had written a memo to conservative leaders six months ago explaining the drift of the GOP and the need for an independent voice but hesitated to make the break. But we are forced to act or see limited government conservatism become irrelevant.

The first crop of articles includes several dissections of the Medicare debacle, critiques of National Review and The Weekly Standard, and Bob Barr's congressional testimony on the threat that the War on Terror poses to civil liberties.