When Kevin Drum was away on vacation, Steve Benen was his guest blogger -- and he was terrific. Here's some of what you may have missed:

Santorum and the GOP's "small government" hypocrisy,

The minimum wage as a key Dem wedge issue,

Snoopgate and it's many-sided problems, including potentially reversing cases of already-ruled guilt (thanks for making us safer GW!),

The ignorant public (still!) when it comes to 9-11 myths, including this doozy: "24% said several of the hijackers who attacked the U.S. on September 11 were Iraqis. Ten months ago, 44% believed this. (In case you've forgotten, the actual number of Iraqi hijackers on 9/11 is zero.)",

To GW, the Snoopgate leak is MUCH more important than the Plame leak ("Bush circumvented the law with warrantless searches, but it's the whistleblower who's facing a criminal investigation."),

GW doesn't care about cyber identity theft (netting an est. $105 bil. in 2004),

Ashcroft and his top deputy balked at the snooping request,

Recall when "circumventing the rule of law" drove the wingnuts bat-crazy regarding a guy named Clinton?