"Maverick" Republicans?

It's worth looking at the roll call vote for amendment 3013 to Senate concurrent resolution 83, picking out the R's in the Yea column. It's a veritable "Who's Who" of "maverick" Republicans, so-called RINOs:

• Susan Collins (R-ME)


• Lincoln Chafee (R-RI)


• John McCain (R-AZ)


• Olympia Snowe (R-ME)


• George Voinovich (R-OH)

That's funny. See, 'cause the Senators who are voting to restore fiscal accountability are the Republicans who are considered apostates by the mainstream GOP establishment, while the GOP establishment claims fiscal accountability as one of its attributes, cf. "tax and spend" liberals.

My response is, maybe I am a tax and spend liberal (I'm not really, but let's let that slide for the purpose of an imaginary zinger retort). But at least I'd bother to tax and get the money to spend, instead of just borrowing it. "Borrow and spend" conservatives, we have to get that phraseology to become as inculcated a meme as "tax and spend" liberal...