The Elitists' Conservative Opinion (aka, the Frum crowd)

There is something amazing going on within the "conservative" punditry of Washington. The thinking is that Republicans are making a comeback because of the over-reaching of Democrats, but that the conservative "Tea Party" candidates won't know how to govern once they're swept into office. The answer, of course, is for the elitist set of the Republican Party to ride in and offer solutions.

David Weigel, the former WAPO journalist that was ensnared by the "JournoList" scandal, offers an interesting insight:

"I think the way a lot of Republicans are campaigning now—as resolute foes of big government who are also going to save Medicare from the Democrats—suggests that they understand the point of Grand New Party pretty well," says Douthat. They're just taking our insight, that even many conservative voters like the welfare state, and running with it in a cynical rather than a constructive direction."

It's an ingenious argument: We're not wrong. We're just not yet right. After the election, says Frum, after the GOP has recovered in record time, either it's going to have to move away from its campaign rhetoric or it's going to be unable to govern. "What happens in January," Frum says, "when the GOP majority arrives and the Bush tax cuts expire, the U.S. economy has deflationary shock, we don't have a program for pulling the economy out of inflation, and we don't have permission from party supporters or permission from voters to compromise? You have people arriving in office with highly apocalyptic vision of a president but programs they don't know how to execute on their own. It's a formula for crisis."

My question is: crisis for whom?

Tea Party candidates elected to office are going there for one reason: shrink the size of government by eliminating waste, rolling back excessive regulation, and cutting taxes, thereby putting free-market capitalism front and center in our economic recovery. Will there be roadblocks? Absolutely! The power of the presidential veto will be at the forefront for the next two years.

And what happens then?

Well, there's another election coming up. In the 2012 election, the Tea Party will be assert itself in the Republican nomination process for President of the United States. I don't believe the elitists will be able to reconcile themselves with the results.

The elitists' conservative opinion will be one of horror and shock as they realize how irrelevant their opinions really were to the American electorate. Can you say "Madam President"?