Casual observers of the Senate might be wondering what in the world Senator Byron Dorgan is doing in this picture.

The humorous image of a Hello Kitty on the floor of the Senate aside, what your seeing here is the liberals using the same tactics they used against the tobacco companies against the credit card companies.

Remember Joe Camel?  Remember how the mere presence of his cartoonish visage in Camel cigarette ads was supposed to have lured kids into smoking?  Byron Dorgan is making the same point about Hello Kitty credit cards.  He’s saying that young Americans, and Americans in general, are running up big credit card debts because they’re lured into doing so by evil credit card companies and their slick marketing campaigns.

Now, to some extent I understand that credit cards can have a dangerous allure.  It’s easy to get carried away with charging, as millions of Americans can no doubt attest.  But I reject the notion being put forward by people like Senator Dorgan that we are all helpless victims in the face of credit card marketing.  Just as I reject the notion that we are all helpless victims in the face of cigarette and cheeseburger advertising.

We are not victims.  We are free and independent citizens and should act as such instead of allowing politicians to turn us into victims as a way to expand their own power.

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