No, this isn't some sort of twisted Freddy Krueger nightmare. That really is Newt Gingrich up there swinging the speaker's gavel -- or is it a sledgehammer? It would be nice to say that the voters didn't know what they were doing when they bounced you to the bleachers in November. But they did. The record may show that they tossed the Democrats out, but it was really the liberals they were after. After 40 years, the labels had become interchangeable.

The conservatives will get the same grace period the class of '92 got -- two years. If they can't make anything happen, they'll be dumped, too. And they don't have it as easy as you did. The president is from the wrong party, and they don't have enough votes to override his veto. The conservatives can make Bill Clinton squirm and embarrass him mightily, but they can't get much done unless he goes along. And the voters won't want to hear about gridlock. "If we don't produce," Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has conceded, "we'll get kicked out."

You know that can't happen. The government can't create families or put them back together, and it can't square entitlements with tax cuts. The math doesn't work. It never has, and it won't work for the Newtoids, either. But neither liberals nor conservatives have the guts to force the public to face the truth. You can't get family values from Washington. You have to get them from families. And you can't spend more than you take in -- unless you want to stick your kids and their kids with the bill. In your heart, you know that. But you can't bring yourselves to say it.