Bipartisanship where you least expect it...

A very telling predicament, not that it will last very long. The tortured trajectories of the Medicare and Energy bills now in Congress have made for some strange bedfellows. With regards to Medicare, Ted Kennedy and the Heritage Foundation both oppose it...on Energy, Tom Daschle is for it while liberals and the WSJ editorial page are opposed. What gives?

Both of these bills present deep and shocking validations of the 'crony capitalism' theory of the Bush administration, and that's not something liberals or ideological conservatives are comfortable with. Because there's no theory behind it except giving specific people cash, and that's no way to run a social program, or a conservative revolution for that matter. I haven't read too deeply into the conservative write-ups of this, beyond the 'that's not how the market works' headlines, because I can barely understand the technicalities when I'm inclined to agree with the writers. So I don't know if 'wingers are blaming their distaste for the bills on Democrats yet. But I don't think they are. And their rejection of these two extra fatty pieces of pork just goes to show how far beyond the pale the Administration has gone in putting out for connected industries.