Metaphor Theft

Thomas Sowell is reading Atrios:

People who remember the old comic strip “Peanuts” will recall an often-repeated situation where Lucy offers to hold a football for Charlie Brown to kick. Then, as Charlie comes running up to kick it, Lucy snatches away the ball, and Charlie Brown loses his balance and goes crashing on his backside.

The reason this same scene remained funny, despite how often it was repeated, is that in the later repetitions Charlie Brown would express suspicion at Lucy, recalling how she had tricked him before. She would then come up with some claim that she wasn’t going to do that anymore — and of course she did.

There is a similar routine that has been repeated many times in Washington over the years, with the Democrats playing Lucy and Republicans playing Charlie Brown.

That's pretty great. Further into oppositeland:

It goes like this: Democrats start spending money wildly, handing out goodies to a wide range of people whom they want to vote for them, while Republicans complain about deficits and the national debt. Then, when the public becomes alarmed about the debts that are piling up, the Democrats get the Republicans to vote for higher taxes to deal with the debt crisis, in the name of “fiscal responsibility.”