Republicans Got What They Deserved

Now that the election results have settled in, one thing is clear as a bell, the Republicans got exactly what they deserved, especially those in congress. The republicans are supposed to be the party of small government and fiscal restraint. Let's just cut through that clutter and state that they failed miserably on both counts, and when performance is that bad, why should the Republicans have felt that they deserved more time to do what...more big government and big spending? Compounding their performance problem is an ethics hangover from the midterm elections. My expectation is that all elected officials should be of high character, not easily led astray by greed. Those expectations generally go unmet by representatives of both parties, however, the republicans, it seems to me, got fat and lazy in their short stay as the congressional majority. They exuded the type of cronyism that regular Americans detest. Several got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Their place as leaders of this nation, representing conservative, maybe ever libertarian values will have to be re-earned over time before they can be trusted with the car keys again.

To their credit, and most of this falls to President Bush, there has not been a terrorist attack since 9/11/01. This is no small feat. Many have tried and all have failed to bring terror back to our shores. Al Quaeda is a mess, almost all of their top brass are dead or in prison. Iraq is on the cusp of total victory, representing a toehold of democracy in a highly unstable region. Kudos to President Bush and the leadership in Congress for this success over time. Anyone who denies this success is simply a leftist zealot beyond reason.

However, as the economy crumbled, as the government largess grew, as cronyism became part of republican politics as usual, the victory of defending the country has become obscured. The republicans have only themselves to blame. The good will and political capital they could have banked over the past 4 years was vastly over drawn. Repairing the damage will take time. It will take years of doing the right thing. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd have given the republicans a nice start on the way back to good health through their "anyone but me" finger pointing on the Freddie and Fannie scandals. Obama and his gang have a pile of good will to spend over the next four years. It will be interesting to see if he can leverage it, or if Pelosi and Reid burn through it like....well, like republicans.