As far as tax cuts go, a recession and a war might have a little to do with a slow recovery. I have yet to see any evidence that keeping taxes high, or cutting them only on those who don't pay much, would have resulted in a speedier recovery.

The deficit is lower than predicted levels every time a new estimate is made. Like anyone cares.

Science policy, energy policy, and dogma:

If there is any reason other than dogma for why we can't drill in Alaska, I haven't heard it. I hear a lot about how Bush's "religious" objections are interfering with science, yet we have let the Gaea-worshippers run our industrial policy ragged for decades.

Is the value judgment that a furbish lousewort is more important than jobs, productivity, and human prosperity based on anything more objective than the concept that a stem cell should not come from a fertilized embryo?

If you grant the leftist assumption that this war is about oil, you can make a case that human beings are dying to save caribou. Is this an objective value judgment or a religious one? Is the concept that “A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy” not a statement of religious fervor?

Let's not pretend that only Republicans have harnessed policy to screwball ideas.