When kids misbehaved in the old days, even before my time, they were given a big spoonful of castor oil as punishment. It seems that more and more leaders on the right are prescribing this medicine for misbehaving Republicans. Bruce Bartlett comments here that a loss in November might be the strong medicine that the Republican Party needs to return to its Reagan base.
Also note Bartlett’s confession:
I agree
up to a point. Rereading Bush’s old campaign speeches does indeed
indicate a strong pro-government bias. But at the time, I and most
other conservatives thought this was just empty campaign rhetoric, not
a true reflection of his governing philosophy. I should have listened
more closely to my friend Ed Crane of the Cato Institute, who always
said that Bush was a phony baloney conservative.
