State Senate Candidate Krumm Imagines Jim Cooper in a 12-Step Program and Nearly Endorses Him as "Traditionally Republican"

Conservative Candidate Krumm (R) likes U.S. Representative Jim Cooper (D)--even with the latter's "pork addiction"--because he considers him "more traditionally Republican about deficits than even many Republicans."

However, I am a bit confused as to what Bob means by these so-called traditional-Republicans-against-deficits. One on-line journal points out:

• The twenty years of budgets prepared by Republican presidents [from Nixon to Bush I] increased the national debt by $3.8 trillion. The average yearly deficit under Republican budgets was $190 billion.
• The twenty years of budgets prepared by Democratic presidents [from Kennedy to Clinton] increased the national debt by $719.5 billion. The average yearly deficit under Democratic budgets was $36 billion.

Michael Kinsley figures deficits starting with Kennedy and ending during the early second term of Bush II, but still with wide disparity:

Republicans have abandoned allegedly Republican values -- if in fact they ever really had such values .... Under Republican presidents since 1960, the federal deficit has averaged $131 billion a year. Under Democrats, that figure is $30 billion.

That is a grand total of zero "traditionally Republican" Republican presidents the last 40 years of the 20th Century. So, is Bob simply wishful thinking deficit-fighting-Republicans to our attention? Where are these traditionally Republican Republicans? I don't seem them.

Now, if Bob wants to call Mr. Cooper "traditionally Republican" in so far as he ends up in the pocket of corporate lobbyists, then I would agree him wholeheartedly; and I can understand in that case why Bob would favor Cooper over his Republican opponent, Tom Kovach, and why such favor would get confused with an Independent streak. Cooper seems much more plugged in to the levers of power than Kovach does; Candidate Krumm seems rather dependent compared to the truly Independent candidate challenging Cooper.