KEEPING THE BACK BENCH WARM: Back in the 1970s, "me too Republicans" in Congress ensured that their party would stay on the back bench for many years, by offering little in the way of new ideas. Rather, they'd look at the welfare and social spending by the Democrats and talk about how expensive it was, and that the fat should be cut out of it. They'd focus on the cost of a program, instead of offering a different approach to solving the problem.

Flash forward 25 years to today, as Democrat Nancy Pelosi says, "I have absolutely no regret about my vote on this war".

While she pays lip service to "The cost in human lives", she spends far more time discussing, "The cost to our budget, probably $100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less. The cost to our economy. But the most important question at this time, now that we're toward the end of it, is what is the cost to the war on terrorism?"

Pelosi is the House Minority Leader--and looks to continue to keep her party in the minority.

UPDATE: Tom Harkin is doing a pretty good job himself.