A call for new blood? (Drunken Sailors: part 11)

Ankle biting has turned into a full-on feeding frenzy, it would seem. Witness: this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer today:

Back when President Bush was riding high - before the public turned sour on Iraq, before conservatives got mad about his lavish federal spending and his Harriet Miers nomination - it was widely assumed that the 2008 Republican presidential candidates would vie amongst themselves for the right to proudly carry their leader's torch.

But that's not happening.

The Republican hopefuls - as many as a dozen men who already are jockeying for advantage - don't want to be perceived as insiders and heirs to the Bush political establishment. On the contrary, most of them are trying to advertise their independence, to distance themselves from Bush on key issues, to appear as rebels fed up with the wicked ways of Washington.

The author goes on to list a sampling of the myriad of "conservative" contenders for the Republican nod in 2008. As I wrote yesterday, Newt Gingrich fancies himself on that list. And as I wrote yesterday, he'd better get over that notion posthaste.

In any regard, the moribund condition of the U.S. economy (relative to what it could be) will not improve unless both the Executive and Legislature revert to fiscally conservative guidance. That means concentrating somewhat less on the Oval Office and somewhat more on Capitol Hill.

Don't make me eat these words - but - I think I'd rather go back to a Democrat in the White House and fiscally conservative congress than have spendthrifts running the total show.