I'd like to see that yardstick used on some politicians

Good article by Peggy Noonan on the Tea Party.

Noonan uses a device commonly employed by Glenn Beck. Where Beck uses a number line, Noonan refers to it as a yardstick. It works just as well either way.

Start with a 36 inch yardstick. 0 is the liberal end and 36 is the conservative end. That keeps liberal on the left and conservative on the right. What gets the Tea Partiers going is that while Republicans might be to the right of liberals, but they have both been on the left side of the ruler for some time. When liberals start at 0, Republicans start at 12, and the compromising always ends up between the two, still well on the liberal side of the equation. This analogy explains spending went up even with Bush in office.

People have seen the light. It’s time for spending cuts, not debating on the size of the spending increase. After all, arguing over too much of a bad thing and just a little of a bad thing still means you wind up with a bad thing no matter what.