The Third Republican Revolution?

Hey, let's admit it. When Republicans took over as a governing majority, they began acting like a governing majority.

Not in ways like boldy pushing forth needed reforms to the dismal operations of government. No, I mean porking out worse than Robert Byrd at a Klan Kook-Out.

First came the outsider Reagan, then the outsider Gingrich took on the party establishment and took control himself. Both men accomplished some things, but left an awful lot of work to be done.

Bush, an establishment type if ever there was one, is in dire political straits. And he's being challenged by fed-up fiscal conservatives. The natives are no longer restless, they're in open revolt.

The Republican Study Committee in the House has compiled a wish list of areas where funding should be outright revoked, or at least frozen. This grand bête noire, titled "Operation Offset," suggests ways to save $139 billion in 2006 alone, and $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. We would be happy to take all the RSC's suggestions, and just running our eyes along the list, with the word "eliminate" repeated over and over, is enough to thrill our hearts.

$1.2 trillion over ten years. Think about that.

NRO is down on the chances of success of this initiative... but business-as-usual, tax-and-spend (or, in the case of Republicans, borrow-and-spend) politicians can occasionally be dragged kicking in screaming towards fiscal responsibility when the public demands action on this decidedly un-sexy, non-hot-button topic.

They did in 1992 and 1996, gathering around the strange and mercurial figure of Ross Perot.

There is, I think, majority support for a serious anti-pork initiative. But some majorities fail to coalesce without sort of prominent leader to push the issue.

There's no single big-name leader for this cause now -- although McCain could be, I suppose, if he wanted to be -- but the blogosphere can be a player in this fight. It was, after all, one French schoolteacher's blog that galvanized France's opposition to the E.U. treaty.

The Truth Laid Bear is leading this charge.

posted by Ace at 04:07 PM

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