Hooray! Conservatism wins!

More silver-lining searching this time from Jeff Jacoby writing in the Boston Globe:

Voters were fed up with Republicans, and they had every reason to be. In 1994, the GOP swept to power on its "Contract with America" -- a principled platform of fiscal restraint, smaller government, and cleaner politics. A dozen years later, the contract forgotten, the GOP had become an embarrassment -- a party of soaring federal budgets, gluttonous farm and highway bills, and earmarks from here to eternity. Instead of permanent tax relief and Social Security reform, the Republicans delivered a vast new drug entitlement and the McCain-Feingold crackdown on political expression. Worst of all, the party that had held itself out as the antidote to Democratic corruption now reeked of its own scandals. Week by week, the parade of sleazy Republicans seemed to lengthen -- Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham. Voters finally had enough.

I’ve written on my disappointment how, in the face of already-exploding entitlement obligations, the GOP made the problem much worse with the prescription drug benefit. If Republicans are just going to spend money, Americans are going to vote for Democrats because at least they’ll tell you the revenues for the spending will come from soaking the rich.