I thought conservatives were the wingnuts and it's the liberals who are supposed to be the moonbats:
A day after Newt Gingrich vowed to build a base on the moon by the end of his second term in office, Rick Santorum suggested that such a promise was merely pandering to Florida voters.
"The idea that anybody's going out and talking about brand new, very expensive schemes to spend more money at a time when we do not have our fiscal house in order in my opinion is playing crass politics and not being realistic with the people of this country as to the nature and gravity of the problem," Santorum said Thursday.
Speaking before 150 students at Florida State University, Santorum said that it was time that politicians were honest about the fact that the debt crisis is simply too big to consider such grand proposals.
"The idea at this point that we're going to create any new expansive plan to create a new mission and fund that mission in any way that could lead to a deployment or development of that mission, I just think is similar to what Speaker Gingrich said the other night when he said he was going to create a new Social Security plan," Santorum said, referencing a heated back-and-forth between him and Gingrich over the speaker's plan for providing a private Social Security option.
Of course, many have called Newt's conservative credentials into question, so maybe this makes sense. Call him a wingbat or a moonnut. This is one of those things people mean when they say, not in a kind way, that Gingrich has "grandiose ideas." Somebody else said that, while Romney might not believe in anything, Gingrich believes in everything.
But I confess to liking the idea of a moon base, and you should not confuse my screeds against government overreach and excess as a belief government should never do anything. I even think it should tackle an occasion albig or grandiose thing, like going to the moon or building the Hoover Dam as away to inspire us to our best.
And the fact is that we use to occasionally do big, awe-inspiring things through government, because government knew its limits and did not try to do everything. Nowadays, the government exhausts its resources and the citizens' good will with its mindless intrusions into every aspect of American life, so we have neither the money nor the energy for the grand scale. I suspect Santorum is parsimonius by nature, but necessity also requires us to agree with him, at least until we get some of our damn bills paid.
