Andrew Sullivan seems shocked that Bush is a “borrow and spend” conservative and that his fellow hacks let him get away with it :

THREE TRILLION DOLLARS: It doesn’t even sound better when Dr Evil says it. That’s what George W. Bush’s proposals for his second term would cost. Actually, that’s just the cost of keeping tax relief in place and privatizing part of social security. It excludes the costs of the war or the other fast-expanding parts of Bush’s Big Government. In terms of fiscal responsibility, it’s way worse than John F. Kerry; and if the Congress remains in Republican hands, there will be nothing to stop the president from trying to spend or borrow all of it.
. . .
I know I’m a broken record, but it seems to me that blogs should not only point out where mainstream media is wrong or blinkered, but also where leading politicians are being irresponsible. It is simply irresponsible either to propose vast new spending, while cynically knowing none of it will happen; or to mean it and have no good accounting for how we can afford it. I cannot understand how Bush is getting away with it: the destruction of fiscal conservatism for a generation.

George Bush and his fiscally irresponsible brethren are “getting away with it” because of people like John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and, yes, Andrew Sullivan.

What so many moderate Republicans and “real” conservatives don’t realize is that their “don’t shit where you eat” attitude toward their side of the aisle is what gives radicals like the Bush Administration carte blanche to enact whatever crazy-ass agenda they want. If you’re conservative and disagree with Bush, you need to understand that your support is the Trojan Horse that these guys are using to sneak into the treasury and spend like drunken sailors. As long as the moderates support these guys, the Bush Administration can write off budget analysis as liberal propaganda.