Here's Noonan in her Journal column today:
Mr. Obama should have written the stimulus bill side by side with Republicans, picked them off, co-opted their views. Did he not understand their weakness? They had no real position from which to oppose high and wasteful spending, having backed eight years of it with nary a peep. They started the struggle over the stimulus bill at a real disadvantage. Then four things: Nancy Pelosi served up old-style pork, Mr. Obama swallowed it, Republicans shocked themselves by being serious, and then they startled themselves by being unified. But it was their seriousness that was most important: They didn't know they were! They hadn't been in years!
What is it, exactly, that Noonan finds so serious about Republicans these days? As far as I can tell, we're debating a $900 billion effort to fill a $2 trillion gap in demand over the next two years, and Republicans have been moaning about a few hundred million in spending on contraceptives. That's serious? I'd hate to see them when they're being flip...
--Noam Scheiber