Dean suggests balancing the budget is a good thing. That makes him profoundly more fiscally conservative than this borrow and spend administration who have wiped out the surplus, racked up record deficits, and gone back on their word about Social Security. Not to mention their abandonment of basic conservative principles such as states rights, individual liberty and smaller government. Yeah, compared to these radicals, Dean looks like old-school Goldwater or Reagan.

I think Sullivan is too timid here, I'd say if you're a fiscal conservative Dean is the only option (assuming it's Dean vs. Bush). Admittedly, we can't be sure whether Dean will live up to his promisses, but we _know_ Bush is not a fiscal conservative. Whether you like Bush for other reasons or hate him, no one can claim he's a fiscal conservative. So if you vote on fiscal conservatism Dean is the only option.

True 'nuff. Talk about blind ideology. It's truly sad to see once proud conservatives supporting this astounding amount of crap. It seems that as long as Bush doesn't get some nooky on the side, they're willing to not only follow him into the pit of hell, they're willing to dig it for him as well.

These guys have all joined the "cult of the critical parent". They need to lighten up and take more vacations. Maybe drink a glass or two of wine a week.

I love all the liberals whining about deficits, balanced budgets and spending... fun to watch.

Howard Dean is exactly as fiscally conservative as the political environment in Vermont requires him to be (and no more). Stick him in Washington and he'll make LBJ look like a fiscal conservative.

@ Paul: I love to see conservatives advocating "big government", looks like they're trying real hard to get rid of their credibility ;) However, I think it's a sad spectacle, not fun to watch.
@ Chris, I read your post, am delighted to see that you're above the "tax-theft" nonsense and think you and matthew have a good point. Still, I think we are in agreement, that Bush is a big government conservative and Dean would have to work hard to equal him, though I admit he might. However, there is the deficit. While we can disagree whether Dean would spend as much as Bush or more, we know, and the Petrified Truth post you linked to actually reinforces this point, we know that Dean only spends what he has left to spend. Last time I checked, fiscal sanity was a key element of fiscal conservatism.