"So while Republicans used to turn Democratic candidates into caricatures of knee-jerk, tax-and-spend liberals, they can't do that anymore."

Mr. Simmons has accused him of being a tax-and-spend liberal who often missed votes.

Democrats in Congress, wary of being tagged as tax-and-spend liberals, have shied away from detailed proposals for increased spending.

Would Saddam Hussein or your average Muslim terrorist bother to single out tax-and-spend liberals in this way?

Mr. Reagan attacked tax-and-spend liberals and turned politics upside-down doing it, but, to be fair, there were a lot more liberals around then.

Ronald Reagan's counterrevolution lasted into the 90's, with conservatives tainting their opponents as "tax-and-spend liberals."

"I don't see Democrats as tax-and-spend liberals," she said.

He characterized Warner as an untrustworthy, "tax-and-spend" liberal who wanted to set a withdrawal date for the war in Iraq.

The group had observed that there were tax-and-spend liberals and borrow-and-spend conservatives; the problem in Washington, DC, is the spending.

It is an interesting dilemma for the Democrats, who are working assiduously to shed any Republican effort to tag them as tax-and-spend liberals.