It’s strange to pick up the Washington Post today and think you’re in a time warp with a front-page article titled “Reagan Aide Stockman Targeted in Fraud Probe.” The sense of notoriety of “Reaganomics” is still there in the first paragraphs, as reporter Carrie Johnson described the fraud in selling the 1981 Reagan tax cuts: “Now the man who put one over on Congress could face far more severe consequences for possibly misleading Wall Street.”

Don’t worry, Ronald Reagan is celebrated in the Metro section — sort of. Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb is using Ronald Reagan in TV ads. “James’ gallantry as a Marine officer in Vietnam won him the Navy Cross and other decorations,” Reagan says, according to reporter Michael “Did I Say Macaca Again?” Shear.

The classic spin line of the piece comes after George Allen aides note that Webb’s campaign strategists have excoriated Reagan in their book. Webb aide Kristian Denny Todd declared: ”Let’s let Reagan speak for Reagan.” Well, he can’t. And who would he endorse in 2006? A party switcher exploiting something nice he said in 1985? Hardly.