First off, let me state that there hasn’t been a concerted effort here to pummel on Republicans. I only intended to post on this subject when something interesting happened- it’s just that the last couple of weeks have been bad weeks if you’re still trying to be a moderate Republican.

First off, in today’s edition, Peggy Noonan realizes she was conned.

The question has been on my mind since the summer of 2005 when, at a gathering of conservatives, the question of Mr. Bush and big spending was raised…. Everyone murmured about… how the president “spends like a drunken sailor except the sailor spends his own money.” And then someone, a smart young journalist, said, (I paraphrase), But we always knew what Bush was. He told us when he ran as a compassionate conservative. This left me rubbing my brow in confusion. Is that what Mr. Bush meant by compassionate conservatism?

Actually, a more interesting question is why wasn’t this question raised until 2005? Bush’s drunken sailor spending binge didn’t magically start in 2005, it’d had a four year run at that point- and raising the question in 2004 might have allowed people to do something about the problem.

The reason the question wasn’t raised was that the fiscal conservatives, the Eisenhower conservatives, thought they were in on the con. This is an important physcological factor in getting conned- thinking you’re in on the con. Consider, for example, your typical Nigerian scam. They’re asking you to do something illegal (launder money) up front. The basic story is that they’re stealing this money and need help laundering it (they carefully don’t say this specifically, but it’s what it amounts to). This works because it creates a mental “safe zone”- you can’t be being conned if you’re participating in the con. It’s the poor suckers who are getting their money stolen and laundered through you who are the real victims here, not you.

Of course, the real victim isn’t some (probably mythical) millionaire who’s getting his money stolen, it’s the supposed launderer. Likewise, could the real target of the “Compassionate Conservative” con be Republicans? Especially non-extremist Republicans?

To that end, I also want to point out today’s news that McCain is hiring Bush-2004 top adviser Terry Nelson. This is the same Terry Nelson who is deeply involved in the Delay-Abramoff money scandal. Machievelli said you could judge a leader by his advisers- well, this choice of adviser says boatloads about McCain. McCain has decided that in order to win the nomination, he has to a) pander to the radicals, and b) con the rest of the party. In effect, what Bush did in 2000. So he’s hiring Bush league (sorry, but I love that term) advisers to help him do exactly that.

The only question that remains is wether the Republicans are willing to send their life savings to Nigeria again.

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