How does one take a newspaper editorial page with the motto "free people, free markets" and use it to advocate the socialization of $700 billion in bad debt? By arguing that government spending isn't government spending. "The $700 billion isn't spending per se, like Medicare," a Wall Street Journal editorial said of the Treasury Secretary's infamous bailout plan this morning, "but will instead be used to purchase these troubled assets... Treasury could even make money." Yes, if there's one entity that knows how to make savvy investment decisions, it's the government, right, Journal?

Odd that the newspaper's Republican ideological allies in Congress, the fiercest opponents of the plan, have more faith in the free market than the Journal itself.

With the conservative movement in such disarray, perhaps Rupert Murdoch needs to stage an unprecedented intervention of his own and refashion the Journal editorial page so people know what the hell it stands for .

[WSJ]