The 43rd President illustrates the follies of neglecting Ted Frank’s rule:

George W. Bush said Tuesday that he wishes the tax cuts originally approved under his watch didn’t carry the burden of his family name.

“I wish they weren’t called the Bush tax cuts,” the former president said as he kicked off the Bush Institute Conference on Taxes and Economic Growth in New York City. “If they’re called some other body’s tax cuts, they’re probably less likely to be raised.”

In his book Decision Points, Bush makes a similar point, and regrets naming the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act the Patriot Act.

Mickey Kaus states Ted Frank’s rule:

Maybe there should be a law that prohibits naming anything after a sitting (or living) legislator? Or even a dead legislator. That might actually be more effective than banning earmarks. Some earmarks, after all, may reflect a legitimate disagreement between local representatives and the federal bureaucrats who would otherwise decide the allocation of funds. But it’s hard to trust a legislator’s calculation of the public interest if what he’s funding has, or will have, his name on it.