Amen!

Over at the Atlantic, Ross Douthat was discussing the different strands of conservatism, when he unleashed this gem. It's a perfect description of the Bush/Rove/DeLay way of governing.

First, it turned out that the Administration didn't have that much interest in policy detail except as a means to win political victories, which gave us everything from steel tariffs to prescription drugs to the explosion of pork - policies that weren't examples of a crusading conservatism of any stripe, but just forays into old-fashioned "buy yourself a majority" statism.

It's an important reality that often gets overlooked. Those on the left like to describe Bush as a right-wing conservative and (especially now) conservatives like to describe Bush as a liberal. But to the extent they had an ideology, it was to gain power through elections. It's why we have the US Attorney's scandal and why we have a gigantic deficit.

Cut taxes, spend on domestic policies, drop pork, whatever it takes to get elected. Unfortunately, this mish-mash of policies has left this country in the biggest hole its ever seen. And its why no matter what Rudy McRomney says, we will have more of the same if they are elected. They all endorsed this strategy before, and there is no reason to believe they will be any different in office.

(HT - The Daily Dish)