Virginia Postrel, on recent “achievements” of the GOP in Congress:

By jetisoning any pretense to free-market principles, the GOP is defining itself entirely as the party of the religious right.

I’ll grant that the energy and transportation bills were pork-fests (a cornerstone of Hill bipartisanship for the past, well, 200-odd years), but the third example cited by the WaPo—the passage of CAFTA—seems pretty “free-market” to me. And, to my recollection, none of these bills are platform planks of the Religious Right—indeed, CAFTA may antagonize social conservatives against the GOP in many states hit hard by declining trade protectionism.

Mind you, Howard Dean’s Party of National Lameness Liberalism doesn’t seem very well positioned to capitalize on the GOP‘s weaknesses.