In From The Woodshed

Well, dawn has come and the whuppin' is over. The electorate has given the GOP a spanking that even some loyal party members say was well deserved. By abandoning conservatism's bedrock principals, specifically fiscal responsibility and protection of the borders, the GOP lost control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats.

The MSM will spin this as a repudiation of Bush's policies. The truth is it is anything but. On average over the last 100 years, the party in power loses 33 seats in the house during a two-term midterm election. This year it was only 21. Further, the democrats didn't win this election as much as the Republicans lost it. The Dems offered no positive counter proposals to Bush policies, and the Republicans didn't present compelling reasons to keep themselves in power. The MSM carried the anti-Bush message for the Dems, effectively making this election a referendum on the Iraq war. They did a good job of that, and the Republicans failed to rebuke it in the court of public opinion. Moreover, most conservative principals on states' ballots were approved; property rights prevailed, gay marriage bans were upheld, and illegal immigration candidates were retained.

Nancy Pelosi, the far-left, San Fran culture darling, is now just three heartbeats from the presidency. She has made clear what she will do in her first 100 hours as Speaker. The good news is that Dems now have a forum to implement the change they've said they wanted. It's time for them to put up or shut up.

For the GOP, if there are any lessons to be learned from the trip to the woodshed, it's that they need to embrace the conservative principals upon which this country was founded - and got them elected - and stray not again. It's only two years until 2008, and today is day one of that campaign.