"Heretical for a Conservative"

Rod Dreher, a long-time Reaganaut, is having serious second thoughts about Iraq, Bush, and Republicanism. You can listen to his NPR essay here and read Glenn Greenwald's commentary here, but I want to focus on one short thing that Dreher says:

As I sat in my office last night watching President Bush deliver his big speech, I seethed over the waste, the folly, the stupidity of this war. I had a heretical thought for a conservative -- that I have got to teach my kids that they must never, ever take Presidents and Generals at their word -- that their government will send them to kill and die for noble-sounding rot -- that they have to question authority.

Now, this statement is just bizarre. Since when is it "heretical" for a conservative not to take government officials, even the highest, at their word? Has Dreher really contrived to forget what he and his thought about Bill Clinton? Or, does he not remember that, at the beginning of this same essay, he speaks about his old hatred for Jimmy Carter? Of course he and other conservatives distrust presidents -- it's just that either they're too blind to distrust Republican presidents, or that they're so mindlessly partisan that they don't consider Democratic presidents ever to be legitimate, actual presidents. I suspect it's a little of both.