Newsweek recently hired Markos Moulitsas ( the Daily Kook) to write “liberal” pieces for their publication and they also hired another political to produce the “conservative” view points as well on issues. A lot of speculation was circling the blogosphere as to who the conservative would be. It was recently revealed to be Karl Rove, to which Moulitsas responded:

Newsweek actually got this right, for once. They balanced out a movement progressive with a movement conservative.

Now real conservatives know that George Bush is not one of them and Karl Rove played Natasha to his Boris. Sure Rove deserves credit for pulling off some miracles in 2004, getting Bush reelected and orchestrating the southern sweep of the Senate by Republicans, but a movement conservative? Please.

Where was Karl Rove advising Bush when he was signing away at earmark after earmark? Where was Karl advising against the biggest expansion of government in American history, in the form of Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, and Campaign Finance Reform? Sure, Rove was sleek. He was able to get social conservatives to the polls with marriage protection amendments, but where was his fiscal brilliancy, the lack of which lead to the Congressional cleansing we witnessed a year ago?

Remember, Moulitsas is as close to a Commie as you can be without actually carrying the official card so anyone to the right of Josef Stalin is going to be considered conservative to him. As for the rest of us who are living life without the aiding crutch of 1,000 mg Zoloft tablets, we know his notion to be completely absurd.

Three simple numbers explain how the state’s finances have been wrecked. We saw similar numbers just before the Davis collapse and they’re back. In this case, they’re 20, 29 and 33.

During the four years of the Schwarzenegger administration, inflation and population have grown at a combined rate of 20 percent. Even after accounting for the recent revenue downturn, our revenues have still vastly outstripped this pace, growing 29 percent in the same period. Anyone who blames inadequate revenue for the state’s budget woes is obviously being driven by ideology and not reality.

The problem is that while revenues have grown 29 percent, spending has increased by 33 percent.

In other words, “It’s The Spending, Stupid.”

Citizens for the California Republic

This is the guy that should have been elected Governor of the People’s Republic of Kalifornia. He narrowly lost being elected Lt. Governor last year. A strong fiscal conservative is the only kind of person who can clean up the mess that has become of the Golden State. Actually, it will probably take a few fiscal conservatives to get elected concurrently to fix the fiscal mess left behind by Gray Davis and Ah-nuld.