On January 29, I posted Wag More. Bark Less

My focus was intended to demonstrate that, "Since January, 1991 we've seen some Wagging but more often heard Barking and growling. Across the political spectrum, the Clinton and Bush presidencies brought out the very worst in many Americans of whatever political persuasion - Left or Right."  I think I did that.

However, I was also positively giddy with self-righteous ardor. "My earnest hope is that we conservatives might be temperate in our Barking until we have substantive occasions to do so..."

And while I took a swipe at the "stimulus" package, I concluded by saying, "...despite Barking at the 'stimulus' bill, my tail is happily Wagging more often than not...for now."  That was ten days after Obama's inauguration.

In my giddiness, I also smugly quoted R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. - and William Kristol - as examples of prominent conservatives who were also Wagging More and Barking Less.  Tyrrell wrote, "Yet for my part, I am willing to give the new president the benefit of the doubt..."  That was Mr. Tyrrell two days after Obama's inauguration.

Mr. Tyrrell isn't Wagging anymore. "Egads, it is going to be a long four years! It is only two weeks since the Prophet Obama's inauguration...I had wanted to suspend criticism of our incoming president for a few months until his bungling became obvious..." [Italics added] (R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., "Obama Agonistes," American Spectator, Feb. 5).

Tyrrell well chronicles the bungling including the swift demise of two cabinet nominees - Geithner should have left before Daschle - and that of a newly designated Chief Performance Officer.  He highlights other foolishness of a "starred-eyed novice" and rips the "stimulus" plan for all the reasons we conservatives oppose it

So I've come to my own mea culpa too.  I'm not Wagging much anymore either. Post inaugural hope has given way to present reality. What I find most distressing is how President Obama is making the president's vaunted "bully pulpit" trivial if not meaningless.

His incessant, 24/7 overexposure is a blur of fear mongering about the economy: "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe," (Feb. 4). Mr. Obama laces his fierce rhetoric with sanctimonious pap about "change" and "bipartisanship." Even the president's most adoring fan club, the MSM, is Wagging less.

Mr. Tyrrell wonders if the Obama Administration is headed for the same "adolescent incompetence of the Clinton Administration or the Pecksniffian pratfalls of the Carter Administration." But he's not ready to throw in the towel. "Presidential historian that I am, allow me to caution my fellow citizens that here in the vestibule of the Obama Administration it is probably too early to say."

Wag More?  Bark Less?  Looks like it's going to be Wag Less and Bark More but we'll see.