Deficit Hawk has his wings clipped.

As an avowed balanced budget/strong dollar advocate, I always watch some of the budget hawks in Washington. I often disagree with the rest of their politics, but on this issue....

Not only is the Bush admin spending us into eternal debt, I think it's something like $20,000 for each of us now, they are now "disciplining" any who dare speak against that irrationality.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) had the look of a hunted man as he walked from the Capitol to the Longworth House Office Building yesterday for a speech to young conservatives.

Pence, chairman of a group of House conservatives called the Republican Study Committee, was complaining to his companions about a Robert Novak column in yesterday's Washington Post saying Pence was subjected to a "closed-door auto-da-fe" from Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay for daring to suggest that the profligate House leadership should reconsider its big-spending ways. But Pence got the leadership's message, loud and clear.

Pence's speech was billed by the conservative Young America's Foundation (YAF) as a discussion of "why the conservative leadership in Congress has abandoned its allegiance to the principles of smaller government" and gone on "massive spending splurges." But instead, a chastened congressman delivered unstinting praise for his superiors.

"I believe in the leadership of this Congress," Pence told his surprised audience.