This profile from Businessweek.com of Rep. Mike Pence (Republican of Indiana), is like being in a time warp; before 1994 Republicans used to routinely fit this profile of deficit hawks blanching at the flood tide of red ink from the ruling Democrats. Now the deficit hawks are the mavericks.

“How, then, to explain Mike Pence of Indiana? As a freshman in 2001, he fought President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which he considered a Big Government boondoggle -- and was badly defeated. In his second term, he tried to scuttle Bush's $720 billion Medicare prescription benefit -- and lost by a whisker. This year, Pence, horrified by exploding federal spending, led a backbench rebellion against a blank check for the costs of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.”

And what is Pence’s reward for all this? He’s treated like a creep whose trying to toss a turd into the punchbowl while the party’s in full swing. No good deed goes unpunished in American politics, eh?

--Ali Massoud