DIVIDED GOVERNMENT
In an email, Reason's Jesse Walker (as of yesterday, a married man) makes an interesting point in response to my post below about Howard Dean's campaign for economic "re-regulation:
I'm not a Libertarian For Dean, though I have to admit I enjoy his ability to annoy the Democratic party establishment. (I realize that this is petty of me.) But most of the libs I know who support Dean would give a different answer: They want divided government, and Dean strikes them as someone whose worst instincts -- unlike Bush's -- could be contained by a Republican Congress.
I'm a fan of divided government myself and was rooting for Senate Democrats to derail the Bush administration's plans to vastly expand Medicare. Too bad their filibuster failed. Of course, they wanted to expand entitlements even more. I'm hopeful they'll torpedo the awful energy bill. (For tons of info on the energy bill, see Lynne Kiesling's blog.)
In happier news, mazel tov to Jesse and his new wife.