This post by Josh Marshall begins as a sort of comment on Krauthammer's recent by-the-numbers piece on the "left-wing idiocy" of Bill Moyers, Paul Krugman, et al. (Well, not entirely by the numbers: this one includes a prescription for Thorazine-- a novel, maybe even handy, twist.) I enjoy this sort of thing as much as anyone, but I try not to let a good time get in the way of the truth. (I'm a shameless liar, of course: a good time usually wins with me. But nevertheless...) Marshall's comment is apt: "whatever other causes or effects the election may have had, it popped the cork on a new bottle of conservative conceit and self-congratulation."
The interesting part of the post, however, spurred by the fact that the Krauthammer piece appears in the Weekly Standard, is a perceptive question:
What happened to conservative reform? National Greatness conservatism? You know, McCain-ite TR worship and the rest?
Some will say that National Greatness Conservatism is alive and well in the zeal for the drive to Baghdad. But that's a weak rejoinder. Aggressive foreign policy was only part of the equation. The truth, I think, is pretty clear: it's dead...What happened is that Bush got popular because of the war. And after that happened why did anyone need reform anymore?