Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most self-deluded of them all?

"Movement conservatism" and self-awareness...a dangerous combination.

I could go on, but the point is that George W. Bush has never demonstrated any interest in shrinking the size of government. And on many occasions, he has increased government significantly. Yet if there is anything that defines conservatism in America, it is hostility to government expansion. The idea of big government conservatism, a term often used to describe Bush's philosophy, is a contradiction in terms.

Conservative intellectuals have known this for a long time, but looked the other way for various reasons. Some thought the war on terror trumped every other issue. If a few billion dollars had to be wasted to buy the votes needed to win the war, then so be it, many conservatives have argued. Others say that Bush never ran as a conservative in the first place, so there is no betrayal here, only a failure by conservatives to see what he has been all along.

Of course, this doesn't say much for the conservative movement. At best, conservatives were naive about Bush. At worst, they sold out much of what they claim to believe in.

Well no shit, ace. No wonder they fired you from that "think" tank. You all thought George W. Bush had "learned the lesson" from his father's (small "f") administration not to cross the "movement conservatives" and the fundies. Well, he may have learned the lesson to court your self-absorbed asses when he still needed to dance for votes, but learnin' don't take with him for long. What does take -- and for a long time -- is gettin' back at people who done him wrong. And in this case, he remembers the long knives that were out for ol' dad from the first days of Bush I's first term and he just doesn't seem to care any longer about their "feelings."

And from the reaction of the right, lately, this is all about hurt feelings.

So, guys, get over it. He's just not that into you anymore, and Karl has been too busy learning how to make a proper shiv to attend to his real duties as Rodeo Clown and get the bull back into his stall.