One of the truly galling Republican political maneuvers over the last 10 years is to go from squandering a huge budget surplus, racking up trillions in debt, ballooning the deficit, and leaving the next Democratic administration with an economy in shambles — then as soon as the Democrats are in charge refashioning themselves as budget hawks. You might even think they’re setting the Democrats up to fail. I know, hard to believe.

Why Republicans aren’t simply laughed off the stage at this point when they try to argue against budget deficits says a lot about Democratic ineptness, media collusion, and short political memories. But I still find it amazing.

Here’s an example of the maneuvering and how — as should be abundantly clear by now — it’s a concerted, well-planned, Republican effort to hamstring Democratic policy objectives: A former Bush administration flack launches what seems to be a very well-funded not-for-profit dedicated to warning of the perils of excessive government spending, and refuses to divulge who is funding the outfit.