"Dead Conservatism"? Nay--Dead Liberalism!!

So saith the sooth at Marquette--and he has the goods to back up the claim.

[Following the Pubbie loss of November] It is now the Democrats who are accumulating the baggage. Consider the pitfalls that have afflicted that party in Congress.

House Speaker Pelosi supported John Murtha for the position of House Majority Leader, and was beaten on this issue by her own caucus.

Pelosi seriously (and quite visibly) considered appointing the ethically challenged Alcee Hastings to be chair of the House Intelligence Committee, creating a considerable amount of negative publicity before she backed off.

Democrats passed a “non-binding resolution” in the House opposing Bush’s “troop surge.” This, of course, was the sort of feckless measure that was guaranteed to alienate both the hard Left (because it did nothing to actually stop the war) and conservatives (because it send a message of encouragement to the enemy).

The Democrats failed to pass that resolution in the Senate. Politically, it was the worst of both worlds: a very bad idea, which the party lacked the competence to actually enact.

In other words, certain stuff stinks, no matter who excreted it...(and we see the same effect, mutatis mutandis, at the State level.)

We could quibble with the Professor's statement here:

The now-decreasing government deficit and (by the standards of the past few decades) historically low unemployment should dampen the zeal of a fair number of moderates for tax increases

Well, it's decreasing if you don't bother with GAAP standards for Social Security and Medicare obligations which are NOT counted as part of the 'deficit.' But yes, the 'operating' side is getting better, and yes, that should mitigate the noise about increasing taxes.

Altogether, a different 'look' at the question, and one which gives rise to optimism.

Read the whole thing. It's worth it.