Dick Armey calls President George W. Bush a 'bitter disappointment'

WASHINGTON (NYT) — Former House Republican leader Dick Armey on Wednesday called former President George W. Bush's presidency a "bitter disappointment" and claimed that the former president prompted "an identity crisis" in the Republican Party that the tea party is now attempting to mend.

Armey — who chairs the conservative grassroots organizing association FreedomWorks — said Bush's presidency stood for policies that are the opposite of the tea party's ideals of a small government with lower taxes.

"He was the quickest, biggest, bitter disappointment we've ever had," Armey said of Bush.

He continued: "What did George Bush give us? He gave us No Child Left Behind, he gave us Medicare Part D, further extension of a liability that we didn't currently need. He gave us, or for many people, a war that was unnecessary. So he was a disappointment."

No Child Left Behind was the Bush-signed law that created national testing standards for public schools. Medicare Part D that Bush signed into law offers subsidies for prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries.

The former Texas congressman, speaking to reporters at a meeting arranged by the Christian Science Monitor, called Rand Paul, the tea party-backed GOP senatorial nominee in Kentucky, an "amateur" for agreeing to appear on Rachel Maddow's show on MSNBC, where he created a flap when he said he disagreed with part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

"Rand Paul made an amateur mistake, a freshman mistake, a rookie mistake. He thought MSNBC was a legitimate news organization, bless his heart," Armey said, calling MSNBC journalists "political hacks."

On the other hand, he said, Republicans are "quite comfortable" on the Fox News network because, he said, they find it more accurate and reliable than other sources.

Armey went on to call Nevada's GOP and tea party-backed senatorial candidate Sharron Angle's remark that she would consider a "Second Amendment solution" to America's problems if she didn't beat Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in November, "a problem."

"It is always a problem. People in the public arena are oftentimes going to say things that they wish they hadn't said," Armey said. "Lord knows I have."

Armey also dismissed the notion that he is the leader of the tea party movement, saying that FreedomWorks is only a "mentoring organization" for the tea party.