[henry quirk]

"you can whittle him down to basically a good government type."

I disagree.

addendum: on second thought, you're right, he is a 'good government type'. It's simply that his notion of 'good government' (large, centralized, and in charge) conflicts with my notion of 'good government' (minimal, dispersed, and firmly under heel).

#

"the right wingers blew it by over-playing their hand."

As I see it: both sides (of the coin) have overplayed their hand (and continue to).