Q: If the "conservative from the waist up" Repansycans don't give a damn about mindless federal spending, why do they continue to exist?

A: POWER.

Pat Buchanan rips archconsevative Tom DeLay and his ilk a new one.

Yes, conservatives, we have reached the promised land.

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.

Tom Flake for President!

Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste is readying a list of $2 trillion in budget cuts over five years for the leader's bed table.

Tom Schatz for President!

David Keene of the American Conservative Union, sponsor of a recent appreciation dinner to honor the embattled DeLay, noted that, even before Katrina, "spending was spiraling out of control" and conservatives were "losing faith" in Bush and the Republican Congress.

Yeah, Keene too!

Even if you exclude the military and homeland security, says Keene, spending increased $300 billion between 2001 and 2005, as U.S. debt grew by $2 trillion. This translates into a permanent bite on taxpayers of $100 billion unto eternity, to pay the annual interest on that part of the national debt run up by George W. Bush alone.