The Mercatus Center at George Mason University got a little front-page love from the Wall Street Journal Friday. In 2001, 14 of 23 of the federal regulations the Bush administration nixed were from a "hit list" put together by Mercatus, which specializes in regulatory studies.

And Mercatus not only cuts down on regulations, it's got liberals running to start their own regulatory think tanks. You gotta love this line of the Journal piece:

Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown University law professor ... helped organize a liberal think tank called the Center for Progressive Regulation to counter Mercatus's influence.

You know you've done your job when you have to be countered. You've also gotta love the Center for Progressive Regulation's mission statement:

CPR supports regulatory action to protect health, safety and the environment, and rejects the conservative view that government's only function is to increase the economic efficiency of private markets.

Heh. Check out Mercatus' regulatory studies and the RegRadar to find out what's making the CPR folks short of breath.