In today’s Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove – no slouch when it comes to Republican strategy – agrees with Josh and disagrees with me about whether stimulus opposition will be good for Republicans.

I agree with Karl that Republicans successfully branded this particular stimulus package a bloated, ill-prioritized porker. But they overshot. They forgot to push for real alternatives (or at least to do so publicly and in a voice people could hear) and, as a result, they’re now the party of No Stimulus.

This is why, I think, Americans dislike the current stimulus bill and dislike Republicans’ handling of the issue even more. They seem to agree with President Obama who, in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, said, “It’s not perfect, but it’ll do.”

Republicans have decided to re-brand themselves as the party of fiscal discipline at precisely the time when Americans want to see more government spending. When the economy is recovering in the fall of 2010, voters won’t remember the details of a bill they didn’t like, they’ll remember the party that took action when it was necessary.