"Like characters from a bad German opera, national Republican Party leaders are bellowing with "Sturm und Drang" as they decry the passage of Barack Obama's $800 billion economic recovery bill.

" 'We don't think it's going to work,' warbled House Republican leader John Boehner, who made sure that no member of his party voted for it. It is 'larded with wasteful spending,' bleated the GOP's new media darling, Gov. Bobby Jindal. It is 'generational theft,' brayed the old warhorse, John McCain.

"Such gloom and doom about a bill to help Americans lift themselves and their country back up! These operatic Republican leaders hope they'll be seen as deficit hawks, defenders of future generations. In his dramaturgic response to Obama's state of the union speech, Gov. Jindal asked: " 'Who among us would ask our children for a loan so we could spend money we do not have on things we do not need.'

"Well, actually, guv, your own party would... and did. Again and again. Maybe you think we've forgotten the $3-trillion cost of George W's misadventure in Iraq, which is going on the credit card of future generations. Or perhaps you missed last year's bailout of Wall Street bankers, another commitment of several trillion dollars that the Bush White House and Congress put on our children.

"Those profligate expenditures, which dwarf the amount now going to the national recovery program, bought our country nothing but a horrible war and a raw ripoff by arrogant bankers. In contrast, the spending in the recovery package will buy roads, schoolhouses, water systems, parks, health care, renewable energy, mass transit, and other real products that we do need.

"Why would Republicans think that the debt they ran up is better than one that actually will benefit America – both today and for generations to come?"