Bush: No, Dr. Flyer, I'm afraid you misunderstand me. It is precisely when Bush turns his attention to domestic policy that we see his true brand of conservatism. Protectionism? By golly, he's for it on steel, lumber, and -- if Kerry gets the nomination -- probably airplanes too. Controlling the spiralling cost of education? Goddamn, man, he sung the duet with Teddy Kennedy on that gross bit of spending. (By the by, if anyone out there still hasn't gotten the hint that money doesn't make good schools, send your kids to the D.C. public schools -- the country's highest per pupil spending -- for just one year. God save you.) The farm bill, the biggest welfare racket in the budget? Bush not only didn't put up a fight, he barely even mentioned it.

No, Bush has done a great deal wrong, and it's clear that he's done it all for the short term political gain. You can spot a jerk-off politician pretty quickly when they go to Iowa and praise ethanol and corn subsidies. Ethanol is about the dumbest, most environmentally unfriendly fuel you could find. (Sure it's renewable, but it takes more energy to make a liter of ethanol than that liter can produce in combustion. A six-year-old can get that equation.) Bush's domestic policy has been pretty much to go to Iowa on almost every issue.

As for the environment, this might be the one area where Bush has actually made some progress. He's succeeded in taking off some of the regulatory heat that kept polluters from modernizing and cleaning up. Smart move, getting the market to work for you. This could apply to farm policy and education policy too. But Bush knows that. He ran on those issues. Did you read Kevin Hassett's article in National Review this week on spending increases in Bush's first 3 years? Scary.