It would have been interesting to have had Bill Buckley’s reaction to the implosion of Eliot Spitzer, prosecutorial bully, patronizer of expensive prostitutes, and former governor of New York. We suspect that he would have agreed with a recent article on the website TechCentralStation by the economist Arnold Kling. “It is a shame,” observed Mr. Kling, “that we only laugh at a Spitzer when his secret sex life is revealed to us. Instead of mocking Spitzers for their private foibles, we should be contemptuous of their public pronouncements. Whether it is ‘cleaning up Wall Street’ or ‘giving everyone health care,’ the Spitzers are making extravagant promises that only result in expanded government power.”

Short of dire national emergency, Bill Buckley knew, “expanded government power” is nearly always synonymous with “diminished individual liberty.” Elevated i ...