In the case of conservatives, there's certainly a connection between the two. When small-government conservatives abandon their principles and become big-government conservatives--usually because voters demand more government (as in the case of Bush's prescription drug entitlement) or revolt when they try to cut it (Social Security privatization)--scandal is a predictable result. The reason is that people ideologically predisposed to doubt the effectiveness of government don't see much practical difference between running programs in the public interest and running them as vast kickback operations, in which they spread government lucre among their favorite interest groups (e.g., the pharmaceutical industry). If government won't work either way, you might as well make your friends happy.

Karl Rove, who is Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to the President, had long been warning in speeches that Democrats suffered defeat in 1994 after ossified thinking and an entitlement mentality took over the party: "What I was trying to say was: What happened to them could happen to us," he told TIME.

Karl Rove remains supremely confident, assuring fretful party leaders that Congress will continue to be under their control despite the stream of new polls revealing previously impregnable Republican incumbents suddenly vulnerable.

But whatever happens on Election Day, nothing changes the fact that the Republican Party has the upper hand over the Democrats in the mechanics of campaigning: money, message, and organization.

But the voice that gives Democrats the biggest chills - days before an election that by most public indications favors the Democrats in their quest to win their first House majority in 12 years - is that of Karl Rove.

Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending

It was a frustrating day for journalists, trust me on this. No exit polls! Or rather, exit polls kept under lock and key in the Quarantine Room until 5 p.m. That spoiled all the fun of reporters calling each other, and politicos calling reporters, and tra

HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH WINS A GRAMMY Oh, it wasn't a Grammy. Salon says it was the #2 political video after the Michael J Fox stem cell one.