Mr. President, if I may speak freely, the Russkie talks big, but frankly, we think he's short of know how.

It's always gratifying when a Democratic politician shows a little gumption and calls Republicans on their bullshit. Kent Conrad of North Dakota was pushing a pay-go bill that would simply require any cut in taxes be met with a dollar for dollar cut in expenditures or the flipside of tax hikes being necessary with an increase in spending. The bill went down 50/ 50 (how say you Mr. Vice President?) on mostly party lines with just a handful of elephants getting on board.

Of course what ultimately doomed the bill was it's strong nod towards that naive concept often referred to as "reality." Reality, at least the objective reality that most of the world outside of what makes up the G.O.P. base, is composed of all sorts of nasty concepts that drive Republicans absolutely nuts. Concepts like empirical math, deductive logic and balanced ledgers. Concepts which, when brought up in a conversation with your average wingnut, lead to pleas that you "stop the crazy talk."

Alas the Deficithawk (Accipter Kempus) has gone the way of the Dodo. Some scientists say the expansion of the common Chickenhawk (Accipter Cheneyus) into the Deficithawk's traditional feeding grounds caused the creature to die out. Other scientists point to the strange mating ritual - an explosion of loud mating calls and bright plumage - coupled with an inability to actually consumate the relationship as the factor most responsible for the bird's demise. There are even those that claim the bird never existed to begin with, having been the product of what psychologists refer to as "self-delusion" on the part of believers, or Bird-Brains as they like to call themselves.

Kudos to Conrad for making an attempt at restoring a little sanity to the Bush fiscal train wreck. God knows we can't have a surplus. Then we might start paying down the debt and then treasury bonds might not be available and then where in the heck would rich people put their money that would be safe? They might have to invest it in a startup or something else equally as risky.

Can you imagine what THAT would do to the economy?