Conservative Donnybrook

We are now racking up, as a nation, $1 million per minute in debt. Let me write that out for you: $1,000,000 per minute; $16, 667 per second; $60,000,000 per hour;  $1,440,000,000 per day (that’s in the billions folks!). Staggering, I know. And yet, we persist in thinking that a national drug plan is a good idea. Even Republicans (link requires a subscription to National Review, which really, you ought to have anyway) according to Ramesh Ponnuru.

Ramesh makes the point that Americans generally believe that they believe in smaller government when asked, but mention a specific program and you get the whole, “well, I’m not sure about that program” routine. The facts speak for themselves. Democrats own the organ of spending (Congress), spending shoots up. Republicans take over the organ of spending (on a program of fiscal restraint ironically enough), spending shoots up. Unfortunately, folks, we’ve run out of parties unless the Libertarians ever gain traction. The moral of this story is unlimber your wallets, because the ride could get bumpy from here on out.

Rasmussen has more out today which reiterates what I believe is a fatalistic attitude among “Republicans:”

     1) Giuliani is a liberal.

     2) Giuliani will win if nominated.

     3) More Republicans prefer Giuliani.

Huckabee has surged, though. This, to me, suggests that a candidate (whom many have surmised is making a decent attempt at being a nice-guy-conservative Christian) can pull support by not being liberal. Or at least not as liberal as Giuliani or Clinton.

I have long viewed John McCain with a jaundiced eye, but his idiotic and jingoistic attack on Ron Paul re-re-re-reconfirmed my distaste for the man. As a self-styled amateur historian with no academic credentials whatsoever, I saw through the bluster and bluffing that McCain bandied about in defense of “the troops.” Isolationism as the cause of Hitler? Was he serious? If so, he’s so woefully ignorant that he should never be considered eligible for dogcatcher, much less President. If not, well, mendacity doesn’t become him, but it isn’t novel.