Demagogue

Paul Weyrich, the closest thing to Rasputin in the conservative world — Weyrich is even sporting a beard these days — has written a strange column at Townhall.com.

On the one hand, the headline complains about a big-spending Congress: "A Fiscally Irresponsible 109th Congress — Future Prospects." On the other hand, nearly all of the examples Weyrich gives of how Senate Democrats have blocked GOP legislation have little or nothing to do with cutting spending or reducing the deficit.

Allowing oil companies to gain access to ANWR certainly isn't a budgetary issue.

One of the bills that Weyrich cites that was blocked by Senate Dems was the minimum wage-cum-inheritance tax cut. If passed, budget analysts agree that the long-term impact of such a bill would cause the deficit to skyrocket.

Weyrich complains that Congress vastly underestimated the cost of the Medicare prescription drug law. He's right, of course, but that bill passed because it was championed by President Bush and the GOP congressional leadership.