Mr. Big Government

" 'We know this is a huge bill,' said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. 'We don't want to lay it on future generations.' . . .

" 'We are not sure he knows what he is getting into,' said one senior House Republican official who requested anonymity because of the potential consequences of publicly criticizing the administration."

Jackie Calmes writes in the Wall Street Journal: "The open-ended commitment by President Bush and congressional leaders to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is stoking anger among conservatives over the Republican government's record of higher spending and debt. . . .

"[T]he party's conservative wing, led yesterday by Oklahoma's Tom Coburn in the Senate and Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana in the House, is calling for offsetting 'sacrifices' in federal spending. And they're backed by a growing chorus of conservative activists, columnists and bloggers. . . .

"[C]onservatives' rebelliousness threatens a range of Bush initiatives before Congress. Moreover, Republican strategists worry that widespread disenchantment among the party's bedrock conservatives could lead many to stay home in next year's midterm elections."

Michael Tackett writes in the Chicago Tribune about what he calls Bush's "act of political contortion" last night.

"Government was no longer the problem. Government was now the solution. Federal spending was not to be curtailed. Record federal spending would have his full backing. . . .

"Throughout his nationally broadcast address from a shattered New Orleans, it was as though the disaster of Hurricane Katrina had transformed the president from the logical heir to Ronald Reagan to some curious amalgam of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson."

Tom Raum writes for the Associated Press: "The era of big government is back.

"President Bush is presiding over the most expensive government relief and reconstruction operation in U.S. history, casting aside budget discipline.

"Bush and his Republican allies in Congress are deferring -- for now -- vows to finish the Reagan revolution against big government and turning to some of the same kinds of public health, housing and job assistance programs they once criticized as legacies of the Democrats' New Deal and Great Society."

On CNN last night with Larry King, Time magazine's Jay Carney said that it's "going to be very interesting to watch to see whether or not the president loses support from fiscal conservative Republicans who have already felt upset with this president who has overseen, you know, vast expansion in the size of government over the last four or five years which is not what he promised he would do."