Politics: Take that, GOP!

Dick Armey, one of the GOP architects of the 1994 conquest of Congress and the largely symbolic "Contract with America," lets the party have it in the Washington Post. Here is a summary quote:

The answer is simple: Republican lawmakers forgot the party's principles, became enamored with power and position, and began putting politics over policy. Now, the Democrats are reaping the rewards of our neglect -- and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

He goes on to note,

Now spending is out of control. Rather than rolling back government, we have a new $1.2 trillion Medicare prescription drug benefit, and non-defense discretionary spending is growing twice as fast as it had in the Clinton administration. Meanwhile, Social Security is collapsing while rogue nations are going nuclear and the Middle East is more combustible than ever. Yet Republican lawmakers have taken up such issues as flag burning, Terri Schiavo and same-sex marriage.

They're fooling only themselves.

In other words, Dick Armey can see that the Republicans are no more the party of Taft, of Reagan, and of Goldwater. They're now the party of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. He's right. It's a shame that he left Congress. It's only old-timers like him that can have any hope of keeping things in check and reminding the corrupt, power-hungry politicos how things used to be. Of course, I doubt that the Young Turks want to know what it really means to be a Republican.