Bisbah

Final Thoughts

2009-04-24T21:28:00.001-04:00

This is my last post for Bisbah for the foreseeable future. I'm spread out over too many things right now and I need to consolidate. And I have come to the conclusion, for now, that this site is something I have to put aside.

But before I do, I want to address something that has become apparent to everyone with half-a-brain; the implosion of the Republican Party.

I was a Republican for many, many years before leaving the party in late 2003. And while I mostly enjoy the widespread psychosis the GOP is suffering from, a small part of me is sad to see it happen. If only because a two-party system actually needs two functioning, logical parties to operate.

The question is, obviously, "Why?" Why has the GOP become the party of rudderless Teabag parties and crazed television pundits (take your pick, but I was refering to Glenn Beck)?

I think the answer can be found in how the two parties have developed over the past 10-20 years and the conditions they have found themselves in when out of power.

It's odd to say that the Democratic Party was out of power in the 90s, considering that Clinton was in the White House. But in a very real way, that was the case. Clinton was concerned with building his personal power, not the power of the party. And with the GOP controlling Congress for most of his two terms, the Democrats were even more disenfranchised as a party.

It's an old truism that when you put two Democrats in a room you'll get three opinions. And that can be a detriment at times to what the Democratic Party wants to achieve. But that fractiousness was actually a great benefit at that key moment in the 90s. With no leadership defining a clear vision for the Democrats, numerous party members began to form their own political visions for the party. Without talk radio to give orders (more on that later), multiple factions within the Democratic Party formulated their own platforms and policies.

And then the Internet came of age. No technology was better suited to the internal individualism inherent in the Democratic Party that the Internet. It allowed all these ideas and viewpoints to gain an equal hearing. It enabled unknowns to have a national platform and influence Democratic policy. Current bright lights in Congress like Senator Jon Tester and Congressman Larry Kissell would not be there without the party growth the Internet enabled to occur. Sites like Daily Kos created a clearinghouse for candidates, activists and regular people to interact, share ideas and most importantly, plan. Future party leaders and party ideals were formed here, independently of a party hierarchy whose main goal was to "be like the Republicans." That is why the Democratic Party today has all these leaders and ideas, and why there is a burgeoning groundswell pushing against the ossified remains of the old party control. That is why, when the opportunity to finally strike against the GOP came in the 2006 elections, the Democratic Party was able to cash in. They had competed amongst themselves in the "marketplace of ideas" and developed a coherent and resonant message that resounded with voters and still does today.

Which brings us to the Republicans.

It's the height of irony that, while the GOP talks about individualism and talks about the Democrats being wedded to collectivist ideas, the two parties act the opposite way internally. That tendency was cemented in the 90s in the GOP with the rise of talk radio and Rush Limbaugh. It provided an outlet for the conservative voters, the first voice on a truly national stage that agreed with them. And that continues today; no one has the ear and heart of the average Republican more than Rush Limbaugh.

Which is precisely the problem for the GOP. Talk radio reinforced the "top-down" model of control and dissemination in the GOP. It's not an interactive medium; one person talks and the others listen without any chance of real idea exchange (no, call-ins do not count). Deviation from what was considered orthodoxy was not tolerated. Party purity in thought and action was valued above all else; the actual ideas were, in fact, secondary to this.

Add to this the fact that the Republicans, to this day, labor under the idea of "Reagan". His presidency and policies have been appropriated by various GOP functionaries in and out of the party much in the way that the Russian Communists of the late 1920s and 30s used Lenin to their own ends. But whereas someone like Stalin came along to transcend Lenin and replace him, no one has been able to equal, let alone exceed, Reagan in the Republican Party. The result is that, 20+ years later after Reagan left office, the GOP still pushes the same ideas and policies that Reagan used in the 1980s. Every idea, every policy, is examined under that lens. And if it doesn't pass what they believe to be what they think Reagan would have thought of it, then that idea or policy is cast aside along with who proposed it.

Combine these two trends together, and it is no surprise that the GOP has gone off the rails. They have no policies to counter the Democratic plans for energy, healthcare and the economy because they haven't developed any new ideas since the 80s. They have no real rising stars with fresh ideas because there was never any catalyst for that kind of growth. It's a poorly-kept secret that Rush Limbaugh runs the GOP today. That stems directly from the way the party grew in the 90s. Whenever anyone crosses Rush, they pay a political price. It's an insane power structure but it's the one the GOP have built for themselves.

And that means when they find themselves out of power, as the GOP experienced in full in the last election, they have no logical way to respond. There is no "marketplace of ideas" because they squashed the market. There are no new leaders with new ideas because the contrarians have been run out or cut down. Eric Cantor is the closest thing to a rising star in the GOP. Does he have one new idea that hasn't been GOP orthodoxy since 1984?

And as I said before, the politicians and party heads pay fealty to the radio and television hosts. And their main concern isn't the party; it's ratings. Which means that Limbaugh and Beck and Hannity have their best interest at heart as opposed to the GOP's. And nothing drives ratings like bringing the crazy. So you have Rush mocking people with Parkinson's and Beck pretending to douse people in gasoline. And since these guys are the de facto leaders of the GOP, the actual politicians cannot distance themselves from these clowns for fear of alienating the voters who have grown up listening to this crap.

That, my friends, is how you have guys like Cantor and Boehner believing that saying "NO" as loud as possible and proposing more tax cuts for the wealthy passes as an actual opposition policy plan. It's a pathetic joke, and the rapidly-dawning truth is that they don't realize it's a pathetic joke. Which sucks for the country since one of the two parties is now officially bug-sh*t nuts.

How else can you explain a party where a sizable minority of their leadership now wants to call the Democratic Party the "Democrat Socialist Party"? That has elements believing the current president is a Muslim? Or not a citizen? How can you explain a party where a sizable minority believes that Muslims are about to take over America when they actually make up, at most, 2% of the population and are likely more around less than 1%? The GOP has become a party of charlatans and idiots, reduced to a rump status where they dominate in the South and barely exist anywhere else.

And that isn't going to change any time soon because the GOP cannot break free of their authoritarian, top-down method of organization. Hell, their biggest adaptation of modern technology is Twitter. The app where one person says what they think and millions read it. At it's essence, it isn't any different than talk radio.

The best thing for the GOP would be for them to listen to Meghan McCain and the guys who were running Culture 11, because they understand why the GOP is behind the 8-ball now and why it will only get worse. Hell, I didn't even get into demographics, which are completely against the Republicans. But you can bet your last dollar this will never happen. Instead, the GOP and their voters will listen to the increasingly secessionist, nativist and insane rantings of morons like Beck. And further drive themselves into irrelevance.

The real hope for honest conservatives, the kind represented in the media by people like Andrew Sullivan and Daniel Larison, would be to break free of the GOP and form their own party. But that, too, will never happen. Because that kind of independence has never been nurtured or tolerated in the Republican Party.

Anyway, take that for what it's worth. But please accept my genuine thanks for visiting my site over the past couple of years. Hopefully, I'll be able to one day come back to blogging here. Until then, thank you and good night.

Dave

Obama and Chavez: So F-ing What?

2009-04-20T20:28:00.005-04:00

So the new big "OMG Obama is a radical gay muslim commie fascist!!!!" moment is that he shook Hugo Chavez's hand at a recent summit. Never mind that he was being polite and Venezuela is 1/600 the size of the US. As far as the right is concerned, this was Chamberlain and Hitler all over again. Except Obama gets to play both parts and Chavez is Hitler II.

So I guess the problem is a US president shaking the hand of a dictator. Which is weird, because I remember a time when it wasn't such a big deal...

...when it was hardly on the radar...

...when it wasn't even a concern.

Ya...this whole shaking hands with dictators...I can see why Teh Right is so up in arms over it.

Dear Teabaggers

2009-04-15T21:20:00.003-04:00

Hey guys. I know you are feeling pretty proud of yourselves. I mean, 500 of you showed up in Boston today. Did you know that 7,000 people turned up to the original tea-party in Boston? You know, out of a total population of 15-18,000?

Anyway, since I know things like history and facts bore you, let's get to the point. Today you tea-bagged your way to about 100,000 people across America. That is some total. Did you know that in 2003, over 500,000 people protested the Iraq War in New York City alone? Do you remember how much of an effect that had?

Here's the thing...no one cares about you. Your protest is a bunch of spoiled ignorant little brats bitching about the fact that America rejected your political viewpoint in 2008. You. Lost. Grow a pair and get over it already.

I mean really...signs that say "No taxation without deliberation?" Are you that dumb? What do you think happens in Congress? There's deliberation, votes are taken and bills are passed. Your problem is that the people on your side can't pass wind in the Congress unless the Democratic majority allows it. You want things to change? Then get a platform and viewpoint that doesn't involve whack jobs like Glenn Beck crying on live television and amping the crazy dial to 11 every single damn day.

And all this talk about seceding? Ummm...go. Please. The United States would be a lot better off if you whack-jobs concentrated yourselves in Jesusland. And contrary to what you hear on Fox, Vermont ain't coming. But you can have Texas if that is what it takes to bleed the crazy out of the USA. We can still get our steaks from Missouri.

In conclusion, you are a sliver of a sliver of a percentage of the population. You are complaining about a tax plan that benefits most of you and a spending plan that barely goes above what the Dear Leader spent for the past eight years. And I don't remember you complaining all that much.

So good-bye. And please, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Well Then...

2009-04-14T22:10:00.002-04:00

Apparently, Governor Rick Perry of Texas thinks the rules just don't apply in the Lone Star State.

Gov. Rick Perry (R), who could face a tough challenge from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) in 2010, endorses a state resolution affirming Texas sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. "I'm here today to offer my unwavering support to...millions of Texans just like yourself that are tired of Washington, D.C. trying to come down here and tell us how to run Texas."

Governor Perry, on behalf of the majority of Americans that kicked your party's ass to curb, all I can say is "Fucking go already." Just leave us Austin and San Antonio. You can go Galt with the rest until the Sun becomes an ember for all we care.

Simply Bizarre

2009-04-07T09:32:00.002-04:00

How do you even label a story like this?

(CNN) -- The chase began with a stolen plane from a Canadian flight school, meandered through three states with U.S. fighter jets hot on the trail and forced the evacuation of the state Capitol in Wisconsin.

It ended about seven hours later in a Midwestern town of 360 people inside a general store off a narrow, dirt road -- with the suspect sipping on a Gatorade, waiting to be cuffed.

...

Authorities said they caught up there with Adam Leon, 31, after his 783-mile journey in the stolen Cessna 172 aircraft on Monday.

Leon was being held without bond Monday, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. Federal investigators plan to interview him later to determine whether he may have violated immigration law, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency said.

Really? They want to see if he violated immigration law? Isn't this a little beyond just an illegal border crossing? The guy stole a plane and was chased by fighter jets! I think whether or not his passport was in order is irrelevant here.

And how did those F-16s not overfly this guy in two seconds? They must have kept doubling back the whole time.

This Won't End Soon

2009-04-06T09:40:00.001-04:00

Another senseless slaughter of a family, this time in Washington.

This is one of the side effects of the rotten economic situation. Here you have what appears to be a wife cheating on her husband. In normal times, this could end in tragedy. But it would more likely end in divorce.

But when you have economic times like these...the stress, added to the bad situation, spills over and creates something like this.

And it isn't just families disintegrating. Look at the nutcase in Pittsburgh who killed three cops. Thanks to the stress generated by the current economic environment, he believed that far right-wing tripe that President Obama wanted to take his guns. And now three police officers are dead because of it.

This isn't going to end soon. Nothing brings out the worst in people like fear generated by a poor economy.

Ugh

2009-04-03T09:44:00.002-04:00

2 million jobs lost so far in '09

And unemployment has hit 8.5%, the highest level since October of 1983.

This is why we needed the stimulus bill. This is why we need the budget to get passed. And all the Republicans can say is that we may be trying to do too much.

The biggest financial crisis in a generation, and all the GOP wants to do is sit back and hope it sorts itself out.

Mr. Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, spoke of overreacting in response to a question about Rush Limbaugh’s role in the GOP. “Rush has got ideas. He’s got following. He believes in the conservative principles that many of us believe in — of lower taxes, or making sure that we turn back towards a focus on entrepreneurialism in this country, to promoting innovation and not stamping that out by overreacting, if you will, which this town often does, to crisis,” Cantor said.

I didn't bother mentioning the slavish devotion to the sex-tourist, pill-popping Limbaugh, because we already know he runs the GOP.

Can You Be A Christian And A Muslim?

2009-04-02T11:10:00.001-04:00

Religion is a tricky thing if you are going to be honest about it. The holy books are filled with contradictions. Ancient laws can be unsuitable for modern times.

I have always believed that no one religion is the "right" religion. That if you look at the myriad complexity of creation, the idea that there is just one right way to worship is ludicrous.

That said, I am pretty sure you cannot be a Christian minister and a Muslim at the same time. The two faiths, while sharing some key beliefs (that there is one God) also have many contradictions (the divinity of Jesus, for one).

Ms. Redding owed it to her parishioners to be able to give them the spiritual guidance they felt they needed. By becoming a Muslim, she was unable to give them that guidance. The Episcopal Church had no choice in the matter but to defrock her.

This isn't to demean or criticize Ms. Redding's choice. She felt the call of God from the Islamic faith and responded to it. And more power to her for doing it. The world would be a better place if more people were honest about their feelings and desires.

But as a Muslim, you cannot give Christians the spiritual guidance they require. Any more than I, as a Christian, could give a Muslim the guidance they would require. Or that a rabbi could give someone of the Hindu faith.

If Ms. Redding truly feels this strongly about holding both Christianity and Islam close to her heart, perhaps she should visit a Unitarian-Universalist congregation.

THIS Is The Republican Budget??

2009-04-01T15:29:00.001-04:00

I know it's April Fools Day ... but come on! This thing is lousy. The highlights:

Permanent deficits of $500 billion due to massive tax cuts
A new top rate of 25%, thereby giving even more money to the uber wealthy
Spending freezes in a recession
No more Medicare if you are under 55. You get subsidies for a private plan!

As Comic Book Guy would say: Worst. Plan. Ever.

Essentially, this is just more of the same from the GOP, with an extra side order of stupid. In other words, they still can't get beyond the ideas they used over the last eight years to run the country into the ground.

Boo. Hoo.

2009-04-01T09:52:00.000-04:00

So smokers are all upset that taxes went up on cigarettes. Whatever.

Look, if you want to smoke that's fine. But you're also engaging in a practice that has societal costs down the road when you're being treated for emphysema or some other lung-related illness. Just look at the tax as paying in advance for your care.

What's The Big Deal?

2009-03-31T11:13:00.000-04:00

Apparently the idea of Microsoft applying for $11 million in stimulus funds to finish a bridge is a bad idea?

The way I see it is this. The bridge will be used by everyone in Redmond, not just Microsoft employees. Microsoft has capped their costs on the bridge, which total half the cost of the bridge. And it will create 400 jobs that will last at least 18 months.

What am I missing here? It's a public-private partnership that benefits the community, improves traffic flow and creates jobs. Isn't this exactly the kind of job we want the stimulus money to go towards?

Rocket Man

2009-03-30T10:39:00.000-04:00

Kim Jong-Il...you are one crazy bastard.

(CNN) -- A North Korean rocket slated for launch sometime early next month can be clearly seen in a satellite photograph taken Sunday, the Institute for Science and International Security said Sunday.

The satellite imagery, obtained by the ISIS from DigitalGlobe, is said to show the rocket at the Musudan-ri launch site in northeastern North Korea. The image casts a shadow on the ground below.

....

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday there is little doubt that the planned launch is designed to bolster that North Korea's military capability.

And Gates is right, of course. This is a ICBM vehicle test disguised as a rocket lauch. It's common knowledge that the Taepodong 2 is what North Korea is hoping will one day become their first nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States. Right now, though, it cannot do so. It's range is too short in its current version and it's payload capacity would be too small for a crude North Korean nuclear warhead. There's also the slight problem that the North Koreans have yet to successfully test the rocket.

But if the North Koreans can successfully get this thing off the ground, they'll be able to put them into production. And while they may not be nuclear, they could be armed with chemical and biological weapons. And with their range and lack of accuracy, the North Koreans could terrorize nations like South Korea and Japan.

But the idea that they're on the verge of being able to nuke Hawaii? That's not even close to the truth.

The Future Of Iraq?

2009-03-29T09:51:00.003-04:00

Awakening Council, Iraqi security exchange gunfire

Can Iraq ever get past its ethnic divides? What happened here is (yet another) Shia/Sunni conflict between two groups that are ostensibly on the same side.

The US armed the Sunni groups in an effort to quell Al Qaeda in Iraq. But the Awakening Groups were never integrated into the governmental structure or given any kind of authority.

So now, as the US turns authority over to the Shia-dominated government, they are not paying the Awakening groups their money. Nor are they integrating these units into the Iraqi military in any meaningful way.

The result is these Sunni groups are being marginalized once again. Except this time they have cash, weapons and training from the US military. Unless concrete steps are made by the Shia government to give the Sunni minority a meaningful role in the future of Iraq, there will never be peace in the country.

Welcome Back, World Trade Center

2009-03-28T10:23:00.002-04:00

And say goodbye to Freedom Tower.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The agency that owns the space where the World Trade Center towers stood is freeing itself of the term "freedom" to describe the signature skyscraper replacing the buildings destroyed on September 11, 2001.

....

"We've referred to the primary building planned for the site as One World Trade Center -- its legal name and street address -- for almost two years now, as well as using the name the Freedom Tower," said Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Port Authority, in a statement released to CNN. "Many will always refer to it as the Freedom Tower, but as the building moves out of the planning stage and into full construction and leasing, we believe that going forward it is most practical to market the building as One World Trade Center."

I'm fine with this. Calling it the "Freedom Tower" always smacked of the chest-thumping braggadocio that defined the Bush years. I'm surprised they didn't try to rename a road nearby as "America Kicks Ass Boulevard".

Calling it One WTC I think is just as powerful a statement. It says "You can knock us down and we'll just get back to business." Calling it "Freedom Tower"...did we rename the White House "The English Suck House" after they burned it down in 1814?

Least Surprising News Ever

2009-03-27T13:16:00.000-04:00

Dogs, cats send 86,000 Americans flying annually

Really? Pets trip their owners all the time? You don't say!

Anyone who has a pet knows this. My family has two cats. One of them is just a titch smaller than a VW Beetle. That SOB cuts in front of me all the time when I am carrying things and stands behind me when I need to back up. She must think I included her in my will.

Sleep Easy, Boston

2009-03-26T16:15:00.001-04:00

Your vampire nightmares have been ended.

A school administrator wants to set the record straight: There are no vampires at Boston Latin.

The headmaster of the prestigious exam school took the unusual step today of sending a notice to faculty, students, and parents saying that "rumors involving 'vampires'" had begun spreading through the building Wednesday, causing disruption and anxiety for a number of students.

Lynne Mooney Teta asked everyone's help in calming the school community down.

I want to mock Teta here for sending the notice as opposed to getting on the PA system and telling the students to get their heads out of their collective ass.

But really, the problem here is the students. This is Boston Latin, one of the most prestigious exam schools in the country. Benjamin Franklin went to school here. And we have gone from a Founding Father to a student body that actually believed vampires were at the school.

Jesus wept.

Vampires. Are. Not. Real. Especially the Mormonized ones that Stephanie Meyer writes about. Good Lord, what's next? Mummies on the prowl at the MFA? Wolfmen at the Franklin Park Zoo?

A New Low

2009-03-26T12:51:00.001-04:00

Why pick on President Obama when you can target his wife?

House Republicans are pressing for a change in federal law that could force Michelle Obama and future first ladies to do more of their policy work in public. But Democrats warn President Obama may take the attempt personally “as an attack on his wife.”

The GOP effort is being led by the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose initial salvo was rebuffed recently at a contentious committee markup session. Under Issa’s amendment, any government policy group that Mrs. Obama or another first spouse regularly participates in would be subject to a law requiring meetings to be announced in advance and, in most instances, public.

This is just horrendous. And the appalling thing is that the right-wing will applaud this non-stop. And all the while the rest of the country will be disgusted with them.

And correct me if I am wrong, but I don't remember Issa being concerned about this when Laura Bush was the first lady...

As a husband, I know what I would say in a situation like this. And since President Obama is too polished and cool to say it in public, allow me...

Fuck you, Darrell. Get a pair. If you want to take on Obama, be a fucking man and go at him instead of going after his wife. You should be ashamed of yourself, you fucking prick.

Wild Weather

2009-03-26T09:54:00.000-04:00

Apparently the entire middle of the United States is getting hammered with wild weather.

Tornadoes in Mississippi. Snow in Texas. And a potentially historic flood in North Dakota.

The Southport section of Bismarck was swamped with a few inches to several feet of water, North Dakota emergency officials said.

The National Weather Service issued a foreboding forecast for the state, saying that many rivers were at flood level -- the worst being the Red River, which was predicted to have a historic 41-foot crest by Saturday.

The last flood near that level was in 1997 when the river crested at 39.6 feet. The record for the Red River in Fargo, the state's most populous city, was set in 1897 at 40.1 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In other words, no one alive today has ever seen the Red River crest this high.

Is it just me, or has this kind of extreme weather been on the rise the past few years?

Voice In The Wilderness

2009-03-24T09:44:00.001-04:00

This is the shape the Republican Party is in: Meghan McCain makes the most sense.

And I don't mean that as an insult to Ms. McCain. Rather, it is a reflection on the current state of the GOP that a 24-year old woman who doesn't hold a position of authority or elected office understands what ails the party better than anyone else within the GOP.

The Republican Party cannot survive as a narrow-minded, reactionary party driven by fear and hate. It simply can't. And with Limbaugh's drug-addled frame filling the captain's seat, that is the path the GOP is traveling down right now.

The problem for the GOP is that selling that kind of worldview alienates them from the 18-35 age group and from Latinos. And those happen to be two of the fastest-growing demographics in the country. The GOP's base is dying off and their response is to cling tighter to their dwindling numbers.

And so Ms. McCain's plea for a new direction will go unheeded. And instead we will hear more about "socialism" and that crazy volcano monitoring money. Because stupid is as stupid does.

Is Larry Praising Obama?

2009-03-23T15:51:00.002-04:00

President Obama spoke earlier today and the Dow is up almost 500 points.

Now, these two things have little if anything to do with one another. But over at NRO, pseudo-economist Larry Kudlow loves to do two things:

Tie any stock bump that occurred before Jan. 21, 2009 to George Bush
Tie any stock drop from September 2009 onward to Barack Obama.

And he has elaborate ways of doing this. But one thing he seems reticent to do is to praise Obama for a stock hike.

Odd, isn't it? But with today's jump, I don't see how Larry can avoid it. Unless he knows this (and he himself) has always been a farce and was just a cheap way to attack President Obama and the Democrats.

Larry...your pathetic agenda is showing.

Somewhere, A Louisiana Governor Softly Weeps

2009-03-23T09:27:00.000-04:00

Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupts

I guess that whole "who needs volcano monitoring" line Bobby Jindal spun out a few weeks back looks even dumber today. Especially when you figure that Mount Redoubt is only 100 miles away from Anchorage.

The GOP and science really just don't get along well, do they?

Late-Night Gaffe

2009-03-20T10:02:00.002-04:00

Yes, President Obama put his foot in it. It's the kind of comment people make all the time when refering to their sporting skills (or lack thereof). And it's wrong when any of us do it as well.

To the President's credit, however, at least he apologized for his mistake and is getting more engaged with the Special Olympics. It's not as if he, say, made a joke about looking for WMD's while American soldiers were dying in a war of his choosing based, in part, on those mythical WMDs existing. And then never even realized he said anything wrong, let alone apologized for it.

When President Obama starts pulling moves like that, then I'll find some outrage.

New Message From Bin Laden

2009-03-19T09:59:00.000-04:00

This time he wants the President of Somalia overthrown.

Really, this whole post is to point out, again, that this is the guy who is ultimately responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 American citizens. And that George Bush had over six years to capture him and didn't do a damn thing. "Kept America Safe" my ass.

The GOP's Dirty Secret

2009-03-18T09:54:00.004-04:00

Well, it isn't really a secret. In fact, it is pretty obvious. For all of the GOP's bluster about wanting smaller government, they seem to achieve the opposite.

After the past eight years in American politics, it is impossible to reconcile current promises by conservatives for small government with the historical record of President Bush's administration. Most experts on the left and right can find one issue upon which to agree: The federal government expanded significantly after 2001 when George W. Bush was in the White House.

The growth did not just take place with national security spending but with domestic programs as well. Even as the administration fought to reduce the cost of certain programs by preventing cost-of-living increases in benefits, in many other areas of policy -- such as Medicare prescription drug benefits, federal education standards and agricultural subsidies -- the federal government expanded by leaps and bounds. And then there are the costs of Afghanistan and Iraq.

And as Zelizer points out, this isn't just an issue with George W. Bush. Almost every Republican president over the past 40+ years has presided over an expansion of the federal government.

Even Reagan.

And yet the Republicans continue to crow about their dedication to small government. Even though all the evidence and past history point to the exact opposite. And that is because the GOP doesn't believe in small government. They believe in government working for a small part of the American population. The distinction matters.

This Works For Me

2009-03-17T10:05:00.002-04:00

Chris Dodd, the senior senator from Connecticut, has a lot of problems. His re-election campaign in 2010 being the biggest one. But he's got this one right.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Christopher Dodd on Monday suggested a tax provision to recoup the bonuses for executives of ailing insurance giant AIG.

Dodd, D-Connecticut, said the notion is in the "earliest of thinking" and has not been settled on as a way to resolve the issue, which has set off outrage in Washington and across the country.

The tax would apply only to those at AIG who have received bonuses. The provision would help the government get back the money in the form of tax revenue.

The idea would be to set a tax rate on bonus money for bank executives at banks who have a certain amount of their stock held by the government. And the percentage being tossed around right now would apply to only AIG.

This is a blunt weapon to be sure. But if AIG is going to hide behind the contracts and this "best and brightest" B.S., then you do what you need to do.