Daniel Gross Bangs His Head Against the Wall

The New York Times has made Daniel Gross an unhappy camper:

Daniel Gross: HEART AND SOUL: The lead of Robert Pear's story on Congressional budget battles in the New York Times reads as follows:

A battle for the soul of the Republican Party flared up in Congress this week as fiscal conservatives heightened their attack on pet projects stuffed into spending bills with the consent of House leaders.

I'm sorry, but some skirmishes over miniscule earmarks doesn't a battle for the soul make. The article describes Rep. Jeff Flake's efforts "to strip out $229,000 for dairy education in Iowa, $180,000 for hydroopnic tomatoes in Ohio, $250,000 for the wine industry in California and $6.4 million for research on wood products in 10 sates." So this rabid fiscal conservative waged a battle to slash $7 million in spending, after he and his party have racked up a few trillion dollars in debt over the last few years? What's the point of trying to cut a few million dollars when you've created massive, permanent deficits on the order of several hundred billion dollars per year? Pear doesn't ask, and doesn't tell.

On fiscal matters, the battle for the soul of Republican party was over a long, long time ago. And the spending devil won.

Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?