Is limited government passe?

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By Jon Ward

He held up former Federal Emergency Management Director Michael Brown and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as Exhibits A and B of government failures.

"After eight years of watching the Brownies at FEMA and the Rumsfelds at Defense, it's understandable," Mr. Shakir said of voters' frustrations.

As Democratic strategist Donna Brazile put it, "I cannot afford to have beer with someone who will force me as a taxpayer to pick up the tab and still be hung over later."

Yet programs like Medicare and Medicaid, Mr. Shakir said, "are programs that are large, but people accept them. People get their checks on time."

"If you put into office progressive leaders who function properly and do the job they've been assigned, then you have results that work for people, and then people will say, 'We'll grant you that the government in charge here is not a bad thing.' "

As Mr. Obama himself recently told a die-hard Republican small-business owner in Ohio, who said the economy was hurting his revenue: "You might want to try the Democrats for a change. We can't do any worse."

After winning majorities in both houses in 2006, Democrats hope to increase their advantages over Republicans and are expected to do so.

Some expect Republican losses to be enormous, with a possible 30-seat pickup in the House and the acquisition of a veto-proof majority in the Senate if the party gains nine seats.

Democrats hope that in addition to splintering the Republican base, the overspending and the waste of taxpayer dollars during the Bush years, along with abject failures such as the response to Hurricane Katrina, also have damaged and undercut the idea of limited government, which has been Republican bread and butter for decades.

Jeb Bush said that "the possibility of limited government also requires a zeal for reform."