Republican Spanking

The Democrats did not win the 2006 election. The Republicans lost it. It is hard to believe that Karl Rove allowed the Republicans to so successfully alienate their base. The Evangelical Christians were revolted by the cover up surrounding the Mark Foley revelations. The Republican Hispanic vote was severely hurt by the aggressive enforcement stance on immigration taken by the Republicans. The fiscal conservatives were dismayed by the Democratic like spending perpetuated by the Republican Administration and Congress. Just witness the huge sieve of money being spent on the Senior Prescription program. How many votes did this entitlement program gain the Republicans? Can anyone say zero? But plenty of fiscal conservatives stayed home with no reason to support this administration.

On the other side of the aisle, the Democrats were ready, pumped-up and vague. Their supporters had plenty of emotion stirring from their two lost Presidential elections, six straight failures in Congress and the Iraq war. Being vague helped the Democrats to keep their party united. With so many problems on the Republican side, why try to provide answers? The coming problem for the Democrats will be in fashioning a real Democratic agenda aside from small tactical moves like raising the minimum wage and investigating the Bush administration. The new Democrats like Heath Shuler will rejuvenate the "Blue Dog" Democrats and create a longer term managerial challenge for their liberal task masters.

In balance, Tuesday was a good day for the Republicans. It was time the party cleanse itself, returned to their core message and bring back a bipartisan foreign policy. Long-term foreign policy initiatives like Iraq or Afghanistan can only succeed with support from both sides of the aisle.

The Republicans proved in 2004 that they can win with their own base even against an energized Democratic party throwing out all the stops. It will be interesting to see who is energized for 2008. My Democratic friends should enjoy the honeymoon. My guess is that the rejuvenated Republican party will come out swinging behind John McCain in 2008.