It seems that Tom DeLay has poked his head out from his anti-indictment bunker long enough to issue a declaration of victory in the war on excessive federal spending.

This comes as a surprise to those of us who know that federal spending is significantly higher now than it was five years ago, but I suppose that's what they mean by not being in the reality-based community.

With the looming battle over estate taxes and making Bush's tax cuts permanent, one has to wonder what impact the DeLay pronouncement will have. If federal spending is, as he says, cut as much as it can be, then how will tax cuts impact the deficit, which was $50 billion in August alone? Will DeLay come out in favor of raising taxes?

And yet the Republicans can successfully campaign as the "small government" party. Funny old world.