Andrew Sullivan reckons that Jonah’s comments will soon become the conservative consensus on the shabby, incompetent, and disreputable nightmare that is ‘big government conservatism’. With as, the Derb might put it, too many Harriet Miers conservatives out there (Jeb, anyone?), that may be too optimistic, but, with the exception that Andrew leaves out the contribution of the congressional GOP (it’s wrong to stick W with all the blame), these remarks of his are dead on:

“It will take a generation to undo the damage that Bush has done to conservatism, America’s fiscal health, and the whole idea of limited government. My prediction: we will see huge tax increases soon after Bush leaves the scene. He will insist they are a betrayal of his legacy. They will, in fact, be the logical consequence of everything he has said and done. Once they get past their loathing, big government liberals may well look back on the Bush years and wonder at the miracle of how he did what they spent two generations failing to do.”