A conservative defense of fiscal irresponsibility

Owen over at the Boots and Saber blog has a post that will give you some idea of the compromises and mental gymnastics that are going to be necessary for conservatives to support Rep. Mark Green for governor. The post is really quite something. The overall point of the post seems to be that while Rep. Green didn't display any sort of fiscal responsibility when he was in the Wisconsin State Legislature or Congress, this time he has pinky swore to do it if he is elected governor.

Owen starts out by laying out the problem conservatives probably have with Rep. Green.

Mark Green served in both a state legislature and a federal legislature that took spending to new levels of obscenity.

That' a pretty strong statement. However, Owen then launches into a long defense of Rep. Green's poor spending habits that can be summed up by saying - everyone else was doing it so how could Mark Green not go along with it if he wanted to get other conservative stuff done? Keep in mind, the everyone else we are talking about here is Mark Green's own party, but I guess Rep. Green had to go along with the out of control spending so the Republicans wouldn't make him vote for abortion rights.

Then Owen argues that it's the nature of the legislature that made Rep. Green spend wildly during his tenure in both bodies because:

As a legislator, it is necessary to make deals in order to get things done. So, if Green expects support for his bills, he will have to play ball on bills that he might not otherwise support.

Now I know that Republicans have stood by while President Bush tries to make the federal executive branch all powerful and Congress completely useless, but does Owen really think the governor does not have to work with the legislature in order to get things done?

The post then descends into total falsehoods to try to defend Rep. Green's fiscal irresponsibility.

He is not one of those politicians who promises one thing on the stump and governs differently.

Really? So when he said this in 2000:

"We’ve achieved monumental successes in reducing the debt that has plagued America for far too long," Green said. "It’s been tough, but we’ve fought the good fight and we’ve finally brought spending under control and reintroduced fiscal responsibility to Washington. I’m proud to say today that the work we’ve done will enable us to pass on a debt-free nation to the next generation of Americans."

but turned around right after that and voted to pile up the biggest debt our nation has ever seen, that was not telling his constituents one thing and governing differently? Rep. Green has never campaign on lower spending and fiscal responsibility?

One of the funniest lines of his post has to be this:

The key is not to look at Mark Green’s record as compared to what we would like it to be.

Translation: Check your firmly held principles at the door when you go to vote.