Noting that the Progressive Policy Institute is holding a panel on the defense budget with Rep. John Spratt (D-NC SC) the chairman of the House Budget Committee, former McCain campaign mouthpiece Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard remarks, "Translation: Only defense has to worry about spending discipline," under the headline "Progressives for Spending Discipline."

Counting Spratt — whom the Washington Times calls Nancy Pelosi’s "centrist counterweight" — and the think tank of the Democratic Leadership Council as "progressives" is like discovering a hotbed of conservativism at an Arlen Specter speech to the Concord Coalition, but I digress. Goldfarb’s bit of ideological invective would have more bite if some longtime Republican senator hadn’t introduced a bill today designed to rein in weapons procurement costs. Or if certain Bush-administration-holdover defense secretaries didn’t publicly recognize that "this department faces difficult choices among competing priorities and programs." Commentary like this makes it really hard to understand why McCain lost the election.

Crossposted to The Streak.