Just for the record: I did not “dream up” the biggest rate of increase in discretionary non-defense government spending in generations. I did not dream up the bankrupting Medicare prescription drug benefit. I did not dream up the festival of pork that this president has signed into law. I did not dream up the fact that in Bush’s first five years, federal spending on housing and commerce jumped 86 percent,   that spending on community and regional development leaped 71 percent, or that Medicaid’s costs went up by 46 percent. I did not hallucinate the Federal Marriage Amendment. I did not dream up federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. I did not dream up big increases in farm subsidies or an explosion of pork-barrel spending. I did not dream up the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court on the basis of her religious faith. I did not dream up Karl Rove’s meticulous effort to mesh local churches with local Republican organization. I did not dream up all the many aspects of the Bush administration that can fairly be described as Christianist welfarism. The term “compassionate conservatism” was not my invention. In his attempt to dismiss the conservative critique of Bush that is fast becoming the consensus, Ross says that Bush actually favored means-testing social security. Or did I misread that? ~Andrew Sullivan

For the record, I think Ross means that Sullivan dreamed up the “Christianist-dominated” part of “Christianist-dominated welfare state.”  I’m guessing this because Christianists don’t exist except inside Sullivan’s mind, so they can only dominate the welfare state in the same way that pixies or unicorns dominate the welfare state.  Which is to say, not at all.

Update: Yes, that’s pretty much exactly what he meant.