This is kinda like Frameshop, but I am not nearly the diarist that Jeffrey Feldman is. Anyway, this little topic has irked me for a while. Democratic politicians (I think, including Howard Dean) often like to state that they are "fiscal conservatives."
The term "fiscal conservatism" seems to mean a want to balance the budget. To me, at least, it also implies that the people balancing that budget will prefer to do it through spending cuts (not military.) That would make "fiscal conservatism" conservative, I suppose. Still many of the Democrats who use the term aren't really into cutting domestic spending and preserving military spending in order to balance the budget. They usually just want to balance the budget. So why call it "conservative?"
For reasons expressed elsewhere by many people, the word "liberal" has been associated with fiscal irresponsibility. Thus, liberal and moderate politicians probably figured that "conservative," being the opposite of "liberal," must be used to describe their fiscal positions. Unfortunately, this tactic helps to undermine the rest liberalism's appeal. It reinforces the perception that liberals are irresponsible.
From now on, I hope that readers of this diary will no longer use the term "fiscal conservative" in a positive fashion. Using it to describe self-induced deficite spending would be appropriate. In its place, one could just say "fiscally responsible" or something else along those lines. "Fiscally liberal" might get confusing, as I don't think that the term has much meaning.