Republicans have abandoned small government

To have the WSJ running an article like the one below may lead to what the ABCNote today called "confusing President Bush's polling and political weak patch with some Notion that they (the Democrats)have developed ideas and an image of leadership that will allow them to fully capitalize on what is going on"

But then Kerry's quote from yesterday shows how a spine grows when the polling numbers are with you! "Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq, what George Tenet is to slam-dunk intelligence, what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad, what Dick Cheney is to visionary energy policy, what Donald Rumsfeld is to basic war planning, what Tom DeLay is to ethics and what George Bush is to 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Wanted Dead or Alive,' " Kerry said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091901427_pf.html


http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110007283

We're All in the Same Bloat
Republicans have abandoned small government. Why shouldn't voters abandon them?

"After 11 years of Republican majority, we pared it down pretty good. I am ready to declare ongoing victory. It is still a process."--House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on the federal budget


BY BRENDAN MINITER
Tuesday, September 20, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT


In the presidential campaign last year, Democrats were said to be counting on some misfortune--terrorists attacking on American soil, the Iraq War taking a turn for the worse, the economy going south--to help them beat George W. Bush. That didn't happen, of course. But now disaster has struck, and it's becoming increasingly clear that Democrats are better off for it. In ripping through the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina has peeled back the lid on Republican rule and many Americans aren't happy with what they see.

This isn't about a slow response anymore. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is on the ground, troops have restored order, and the water in New Orleans has long since begun to recede. President Bush and Republicans in Congress are now taking a hit not for when but rather how they have responded. And unless they change course, Republicans will pay a steep price in next year's midterm elections and leave Democrats in the driver's seat for 2008.

What President Bush, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other Republicans haven't figured out yet is that deficit spending isn't a problem for them unless it endangers the broader conservative agenda. If it does, it will become the electoral issue. And what we're seeing is that Katrina is swamping every goal conservatives have, from limiting government to cutting taxes to reforming entitlement programs. Katrina spending has already imperiled plans to repeal the death tax, and Congress is already $60 billion into a spending binge. Handing out $2,000 debit cards was just the beginning. The conservative Congress has brought back the welfare state.

This isn't all Katrina's fault. Republicans have been kidding themselves for years that they are still the stewards of fiscal conservatism and limited government. The Medicare prescription drug plan is just one example. Run down the list of the some 80 federal entitlements--including Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, Pell Grants and so much more--and it becomes clear that little has been done to take these massive programs off of spending autopilot. Welfare reform and Freedom to Farm in the 1990s were nice, but what has the GOP done lately? In many cases Republicans have ramped up spending and then bragged about it.

What we're seeing in the wake of Katrina is that despite all the winks and assurances to the contrary as they passed the energy and transportation bills, Republicans in Congress don't know how to control spending and are at a loss as to why they even should. That's one way to govern. But if Republicans no longer believe in smaller government, why not put the Democrats back in charge?<snip>

Don't know where these WSJ editors live, but it's not on Planet Earth. Condi for elected office! Only if they hold elections in Hell; she could run for Queen of the Ninth Circle. She'd be a shoo-in.

:-)

Not even to placehold between Bush Emperors. Sorry, Condi, but it's just as if you were hanging around with mafia people. You could help them, shill for them, but you would NEVER truly BE ONE OF THEM.

I hadn't thought of that.