The Conservative Bean Is Frugal!

1) all the earmark and "bridge to nowhere" nonsense.

The '94 elections were successfully "nationalized" by Newt, to the Republicans advantage, ending the Tip O'Neil dictum, "all politics is local." It was supposed to be the end of the "bring home the bacon" advantage that was Democrat largesse. In '06, Senator Ted Stevens "Bridge to Nowhere" was deadly. It may be that the country is belatedly getting around to intuitively understanding de'Toqueville's warning that democracy survives only until the people discover that they can vote for themselves funds from the largesse of the treasury - and that politicians can bribe their constituents into keeping them in office. The problem with Tip's perspective is, of course, that bringing home the bacon for one district costs money that neighboring districts think could have been better used to buy more coffee. That, at least, is what my district thinks!
And obviously the neighboring districts are correct.
No one expects good reviews of anything Republican from The Comedy Channel, but we shouldn't be giving them such easy targets.

It's likely that you don't live in Alaska, so your district probably disapproves as well. Alaska's Senator Stevens ignored the steaming contempt that his bridge was brewing because he could. He is, til January, in charge of the transportation bean counters.
To the old timers in the GOP, this represents the widespead betrayal of failure to deal with rampant use of earmarks. The youngers, who voted in record numbers this cycle, have no memory of what a war that is run from DC really looks like. They haven't even heard of the results of raising minimum wages, or why Democrats enjoy interfering with successful businesses like Wal-mart. (Not to get results, but to remind business who they must pay off.) To anyone who has entered political arena in the last fifteen years, the Republican party is the party of Big Government.