Tom DeLay? David Dreier? Who Cares?

According to Congressman David Dreier's hompage, "limited but effective government" is one of his "core principles." As the Chairman of the House Rules Committee, he has done little on behalf of that principle. The acceleration of spending on all fronts is prima facie evidence that, whatever his self-serving verbiage, he is a principal practitioner of big-government conservatism.

As the national GOP struggles with its own Dan Rostenkowski, arch-(paleo)conservative commentator Pat Buchanan pointed to DeLay's recent admission that there was no more spending that could be reduced:

Looking over the budget, one-fifth of our entire economy, DeLay says there is simply no more fat to be found. To cut further is to carve out muscle and bone. "After 11 years of Republican majority, we've pared it down pretty good."

Presumably, congratulations are in order. But that is not what is coming the Hammer's way. "I wonder if we've been serving in the same Congress," snorts Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona.

Buchanan then laments, "We [conservatives] have become the very people we went into politics to run out of town."

Seems like a statement of the obvious. To answer the question that serves as the title of Buchanan's article ("Where Are All the Republicans Who Despise Big Government?"), among elected officials in the Beltway they could probably be counted on one hand -- perhaps two, but no more.