The Heritage Foundation to the rescue!

Now that the Democrats have been completely emasculated--partly by GOP gains in the Senate and partly by their own poor party discipline and lack of vision--we must turn to some, as we say in the environmental movement, “non-traditional allies.”

How ‘bout…Grover Norquist? It is perhaps a little-known fact that Mr. Norquist’s organization, Americans for Tax Reform, publicly opposed the anti-environment, Bush-backed energy bill last spring on the basis of its phenomenal, $37 billion taxpayer giveaway to energy companies. That's just one example that immediately springs to mind of a place where progressives can work with fiscal conservatives to stop the backwards slide. Because if the administration wants to spend money on something, the odds are good it's something we'd oppose.

There is a lot of writing out there right now about the frustration of fiscal conservatives who felt forced to back Bush for reelection even though they are disappointed with his performance in office so far. Much of this sentiment seems to be rooted in the break between "the neocons" (always lumped together, of course) and traditional conservatives, particularly where our current quest in Iraq is concerned. See, for example, NYT Week in Review, "The Anti-War Right is Ready to Rumble."

At any rate, I am pretty well convinced at this point that the only way to stop the madness is to build an alliance in Congress of balky, fiscally conservative Republicans and the few Democrats who still have spines.