[Major Matt Mason]

It was suburbanites, independents, and others who were fed up not just with the war and corruption, but also with the Republican drift toward big-government who stayed home, or even voted Democratic, on election day 2006. That night, more than 65 percent of voters told a pollster they believed that "The Republicans used to be the party of economic growth, fiscal discipline, and limited government, but in recent years, too many Republicans in Washington have become just like the big spenders they used to oppose."

Amen. Notice the word "independents" at the beginning of the paragraph. This is the true reason that the GOP lost last year, rather than the fiction that is being promoted around here that conservatives stayed home. Some economic conservatives stayed home, but many of those aren't necessarily registered Republicans.

[weegee]

The “corruption” can be summed up by Ronnie Earle’s partisan prosecution of Tom DeLay and the DNC/Newsmedia’s coordination of the Mark Foley “October Surprise” (which had an ick factor but nothing criminal and was used to paint the entire GOP as a corrupt party that covered it up, knew and did nothing... just like the DNC and the media, at least until it was politically advantageous to notify the public).