Thanks to Gingrich and the Republican Congress.

That happened on Clinton's watch.

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That wasn't all that happened on party-boy Clinton's watch. Bill Clinton and Ken Lay were golfing buddies. Any big corporate scandal you can name, from Enron to Global Crossing to Worldcom to Tyco to Adelphia, the vast majority of the crimes took place under Clinton and were prosecuted under Bush. All these fat cats were heavy contributors to Democrats and Republicans alike, but only the Bush Justice Department put them in jail.

For the first two years, yes. After the Contract with America brought Gingrich and the Republicans into power in 1994, the budget was balanced for the first time in decades. A dozen years of prosperity ensued, to the benefit of both Clinton and Bush.

What is "Overthrow the damn government" code for?

Don't you know? Speaking truth to power only matters when the power is on the Right. It's like the "brave, transgressive" artists who never insult any faith but Christianity. It's cheap and easy to call for the assassination or war crimes trial of the rhinoceros-skinned George Bush, or call Sarah Palin a fucking fascist cunt, or carry a sign encouraging our soldiers to mutiny, or to dunk a crucifix in urine and call it art. Some people become rich and famous in the left wing echo chamber that way, and the rest (at worst) are ignored. It's quite another matter to insult Barack Obama or question affirmative action in a university faculty meeting, or to draw a cartoon derogatory of Mohammed, piss be upon him. That can put an end to your career, or even your life.

It's the thing that got Socrates killed, really: people who really shouldn't have opinions on something, having opinions on that something. Uninformed, easily manipulated opinions. And they feel like they're experts, at the top of the world.

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Oh, so the hoi polloi should just shut up and pay their taxes, because the "experts" have such a good track record in running the show, is that it? Pooh. Experts be damned.

I'm with Bill Buckley; I'd rather be governed by 100 names picked from the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard.

-ccm