Over at The Next Right, Patrick Ruffini desperately wants Republicans draw a brighter line on the upcoming stimulus:

The Democrats have doubled down on the massive domestic deficit spending of the Bush era. There will likely be massive deficit spending of some sort in the next few years to deal with the "depression."

This is why a rule of No New Spending in the stimulus sounds good to me. As a matter of practical reality, our numbers in the Senate and House are such that no Republican proposal will become law. The opportunity to finesse the Democratic stimulus is not there because the playing field is titled so far in the Democrats' direction. With hopeless minorities, we are freer to demonstrate what we would do in an ideal governing situation, instead of trying to make the White House's proposal less bad.

Ruffini can't be blamed for his frustration. His Republican leaders in the House and Senate have made largely milquetoast statements about the stimulus spending.

On the Senate side, Mitch McConnell insists that"the taxpayers deserve to know a lot more about where it will be spent before we consider passing it." That's pretty weak opposition, even for Senate-speak. McConnell's language implies a default position of "yes," just with a few speed bumps.

In the lower chamber, Boehner's opposition makes a few more gestures to his party's ideologues, soliciting "credentialed American economists" to add their names to a list of "skeptics." But even Boehner sees the inevitable, and finds himself resorting to calls for "Democrats and Republicans to work together on reforms that will unleash America's economic potential and help our economy create jobs."

Ruffini won't get his wish: Republican leaders are keenly aware of how little political juice they've got right now. So while they may have an easier time shaking fists at the amorphous concept of "bailouts," it will be near impossible for Republicans to find traction opposing a stimulus package.