Posted on 11/08/2006 8:14:07 PM PST by Checkers
The post-mortems are accumulating, but I think the obvious has to be stated: John McCain and his colleagues in the Gang of 14 cost the GOP its Senate majority while the conduct of a handful of corrupt House members gave that body's leadership the Democrats.
The first two paragraphs of my book Painting the Map Red --published in March of this year, read:
If you are a conservative Republican, as I am, you have a right to be worried. An overconfident and complacent Republican Party could be facing electoral disaster. Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, and a host of others could be looming in our future and undoing all the good we've tried to do.
It is break the glass and pull the alarm time for the Republican Party. The elections looming in November 2006 are shaping up to be disastrous for the GOP as the elections of 1994 were for the Democrats. Most GOP insiders seem unaware of the party's political peril. Some are resigned to a major defeat as the price we have to pay for a decade of consistent gains, which, they think, couldn't have gone on forever.
As cooler heads sort through the returns, they will see not a Democratic wave but a long series of bitter fights most of which were lost by very thin margins, the sort of margin that could have been overcome had there been greater purpose and energy arrayed on the GOP's side. The country did not fundamentally change from 2004, but the Republicans had to defend very difficult terrain in very adverse circumstances. Step by step over the past two years the GOP painted themselves into a corner from which there was no escape. Congressional leadership time and time again took the easy way out and declared truces with Democrats over issues, which ought not to have been compromised. The easy way led to Tuesday's result.
The criminal activities of Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney and Mark Foley were anchors around every Republican neck, and the damaged leadership could not figure out that the only way to slip that weight was by staying in town and working around the clock on issue after issue. The long recesses and the unwillingness to confront the issues head on --remember the House's inexplicable refusal to condemn the New York Times by name in a resolution over the SWIFT program leak?-- conveyed a smugness about the majority which was rooted in redistricting's false assurance of invulnerability. Only on rare occasions would the Republicans set up the sort of debate that sharpened the contrast between the parties. In wartime, the public expects much more from its leaders than they received from the GOP.
In the Senate three turning points stand out.
On April 15, 2005 --less than three months after President Bush had begun a second term won in part because of his pledge to fight for sound judges-- Senator McCain appeared on Hardball and announced he would not support the "constitutional option" to end Democratic filibusters. Then, stunned by the furious reaction, the senator from Arizona cobbled together the Gang of 14 "compromise" that in fact destroyed the ability of the Republican Party to campaign on Democratic obstructionism while throwing many fine nominees under the bus. Now in the ruins of Tuesday there is an almost certain end to the slow but steady restoration of originalism to the bench. Had McCain not abandoned his party and then sabotaged its plans, there would have been an important debate and a crucial decision taken on how the Constitution operates. The result was the complete opposite. Yes, President Bush got his two nominees to SCOTUS through a 55-45 Senate, but the door is now closed, and the court still tilted left. A once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost.
A few months later there came a debate in the Senate over the Democrats' demand for a timetable for withdrawal for Iraq led to another half-measure: A Frist-Warner alternative that demanded quarterly reports on the war's progress, a move widely and correctly interpreted as a blow to the Administration’s Iraq policy. Fourteen Republicans voted against the Frist-Warner proposal --including Senator McCain-- and the press immediately understood that the half-measure was an early indicator of erosion in support for a policy of victory.
Then came the two leaks of national security secrets to the New York Times, and an utterly feckless response from both the Senate and the House. Not one hearing was held; not one subpoena delivered. A resolution condemning these deeply injurious actions passed the House but dared not name the New York Times. The Senate did not even vote on a non-binding resolution.
Nor did the Senate get around to confirming the president's authority to conduct warrantless surveillance of al Qaeda contacting its operatives in the United States. Weeks were taken up jamming the incoherent McCain-Kennedy immigration bill through the Judiciary Committee only to see it repudiated by the majority of Republicans, and the opportunity lost for a comprehensive bill that would have met the demand for security within a rational regularization of the illegal population already here.
And while the Senate twiddled away its days, crucial nominees to the federal appellate bench languished in the Judiciary Committee. The most important of them --Peter Keisler who remains nominated for the D.C. Circuit-- didn't even receive a vote because of indifference on the part of Chairman Specter.
(The National Review's Byron York wondered why the president didn't bring up the judges issue in the campaign until the last week, and then only in Montana. The reason was obvious: Senators DeWine and Chafee were struggling and any focus on the legacy of the Gang of 14 would doom DeWine's already dwindling chances while reminding the country of the retreat from principal in early '05.)
As summer became fall, the Administration and Senator Frist began a belated attempt to salvage the term. At exactly that moment Senators McCain and Graham threw down their still murky objections to the Administration’s proposals on the trial and treatment of terrorists. Precious days were lost as was momentum and clarity, the NSA program left unconfirmed (though still quite constitutional) and Keisler et al hung out to dry.
Throughout this two years the National Republican Senatorial Committee attempted to persuade an unpersuadable base that Lincoln Chafee was a Republican. For years Chafee has frustrated measure after measure, most recently the confirmation of John Bolton, even after Ahmadinejad threatened and Chavez insulted the United States from the UN stage. Chafee was a one-man wrecking crew on the NRSC finances, a drain of resources and energy, and a billboard for the idea that the Senate is first a club and only secondarily a body of legislators.
It is hard to conceive of how the past two years could have been managed worse on the Hill.
The presidential ambitions of three senators ended Tuesday night, though two of them will not face up to it.
The Republican Party sent them and their 52 colleagues to Washington D.C. to implement an agenda which could have been accomplished but that opportunity was frittered away.
The Republican Party raised the money and staffed the campaigns that had yielded a 55-45 seat majority, and the Republican Party expected the 55 to act like a majority. Confronted with obstruction, the Republicans first fretted and then caved on issue after issue. Had the 55 at least been seen to be trying --hard, and not in a senatorial kind of way-- Tuesday would have had a much different result. Independents, especially, might have seen why the majority mattered.
Will the GOP get back to a working majority again? Perhaps. And perhaps sooner than you think. The Democrats have at least six vulnerable senators running in 2008, while the situation looks pretty good for the GOP.
But the majority is not going to return unless the new minority leadership --however it is composed-- resolves to persuade the public, and to be firm in its convictions, not concerned for the praise of the Beltway-Manhattan media machine.
Hugh Hewitt is a law professor, broadcast journalist, and author of several books including Painting the Map Red: The Fight to Create a Permanent Republican Majority .
I thought the turnout on both sides was hugh for a mid-term.
How very true, but it's really gonna suck for the next 2 years. I hope the pubbies get back to basics for '08.
:D
"The vicious cycle that began with Al Gore in 2000 can be ended. Graciousness can be returned to American politics."
I was with him until here. The dems will in no way permit this to happen. If anything I fully expect them to become more vicious and more partisan. George Allen can concede, he can litigate, he can kiss Jim Webb's big fat Scot-Irish behind, none of it will make a wee bit of difference.
Dewine dug his grave while becoming a beltway boy. I'm sure right now he's still stunned that his pals the Democrats went all out to defeat him, after all he was ever ready to compromise especially on conservative principles.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
$$$$$ talks. If it takes a lie to take the cash, the lying will continue.
Perhaps, but I can't take up the mantra that "It's all Bush's fault!"
The Republicans have had six years to implement a true Republican agenda -- one which, by the way, as a Libertarian, I'd been holding my breath for.
And what do we get? A bunch of spineless RINOs pushing Democrat ideology.
Apparently the people of this great nation have grown weary of the empty promises and would rather have real Democrats running the country than phony Republicans.
God knows they must be desperate if they're voting Democrat. :^P
this is crap.
stop bashing our braindead Republican senators,
for normal behavior.
Republicans lost because...
House scandals
people are tired of the war
3 buck gas
twit candidates
Bush-Cheney fatigue
Ohio mess
So true!
http://www.cafenetamerica.com
The idea here is sound. I agree 100%.
It can really be reduced to simplicity:
We didn't give them a reason to vote FOR us. We only gave them a reason to vote AGAINST the other side.
That is an argument that rarely works. It is the argument that Kerry's crowd used to try and elect him and it's why he lost. If you have nothing positive to offer and are only telling people 'the other guy sucks more', you're bankrupt and you are going to lose.
We all saw it going in, and we all held our heads up in spite of it, but it wasn't good enough to get the job done.
We need positive, proactive LEADERS who are able to EXPLAIN our positions and our beliefs and FIGHT FOR THEM.
This milquetoast, weak kneed, lilylivered crap isn't going to cut it anymore.
Social Security reform:
Are you from THIS PLANET?
On Earth, Bush and the Republicans got HAMMERED at every single mention of Social Security reform...
Illegal immigration solution:
Look at the election Demographics. Our "Border" people cost us a TON of Hispanic Votes Nationwide, and gave the Dems a whole new base of Illegal Voters....
Apparently the people of this great nation have grown weary of the empty promises and would rather have real Democrats running the country than phony Republicans.
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If that is what it all distills down to, I would prefer incompetent, complacent Repubs to socialist-Marxists running this country, any day. Real democrats = power-centric Marxists. That is what their party has gravitated into...still with my dislike for the Repub performance, I will still take the MUCH lesser of two evils.
I mean, for the love of God, what the hell were we doing? We were protecting Chafee because we wanted to KEEP A SEAT for a majority? Why? What good was it going to do us?
When all your majority is about is keeping the majority, the time has come for you to go back to being a minority to reprioritize. That's where we are now. And we can emerge stronger for it.
Christian news and commentary at: sacredscoop.com ...
I was with Mr. Barnett until this line. I think he is utterly wrong. President Bush tried the "new tone" approach and it was a disaster. The partisan rancor was largely on the side of the Democrats, who used it to their great advantage. It was not pretty, but it worked.
If the Republicans are to win, they must confront the Democrats. A little partisan rancor over the right issues would do wonders to energize the Republican base.
Pretty spot on.
Right on the money IMO.
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