It is ironic to the point of absurdity that leftists could ever complain about conservatives threatening their liberties. Now back in power, they're in a full sprint to grab power and reduce our liberties.

Of course, we always knew the left's spurious charges against President Bush were not just rank partisanship but also classic projection -- accusing him of precisely the type of tactics they would employ if they were in power. And now they are -- big-time.

Let's consider just a few examples.

Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey, at the personal expense of incurring the fury of such liberal mouth foamers as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, has helped expose hidden health care provisions in President Obama's stimulus nightmare that "will affect 'every individual in the United States.'"

The bill creates a new bureaucracy, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which "will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective." Note: not what your doctor deems appropriate, but what the federal government does. Doctors and hospitals will face penalties if they fail to kowtow to this fiat requiring uniformity. This new bureaucracy will receive greater funding than "the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined."

Worse, the bill will result in the rationing of care for the elderly. But that's OK because Big Brother has determined that individuals will benefit in their younger years and will have to sacrifice later. I'm not making this up. This is one of the rationales defenders of these innovations are serving up.

Much of the impetus for these health care changes came from disgraced former Sen. Tom Daschle, who would be head of Health and Human Services right now but for his little tax issue. McCaughey shares revealing gems from Daschle's 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." Among them are his opinions that doctors must give up autonomy and "learn to operate less like solo practitioners" and that seniors will have to learn to deal with -- rather than receive treatment for -- conditions that arise from their age.

Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this particularly noxious stealth provision of the stimulus scheme is not what's in it, but how it -- and other such free market-destroying provisions -- were rushed through under deliberate cover of darkness. McCaughey attributes this strategy to Daschle, as well.

A year ago, McCaughey tells us, Daschle warned that the next president should not make the same mistake the Clintons made with Hillary Care, which was to allow debate. Daschle wrote: "If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it. The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol."

So much for "liberal" democracy. So much for transparency. So much for a new era of hope and change. Continued...