Why Did This Happen?

You really don’t have to look far to explain why Republicans lost their majority in Congress. Democrats did not win, Republicans lost. Since the 1995 government shut-down, the departure of New Gingrich and the election of George Bush, the House and Senate Republican leadership have been on a steady diet of accommodating the Democrat and liberal agenda under the guise of setting a new tone.

The Republicans came into power with an agenda of controlling runaway spending, fiscal responsibility and eliminating the Department of Education. Instead, government has doubled in size, discretionary spending has doubled, federal education control and spending has doubled under the guise of leaving no child behind; illegal immigration is out of control; we have a new Medicare entitlement program; they gave up on tax reform (settling for tax cuts and jiggling the current code); gave up Social Security reform, gave up on the overarching domestic them of the Ownership Society, ran from the fight on ending Democrat judicial filibusters —and that’s just on the domestic side.

On the international side/defense/national security side: The Iraqi front on the War on Terror is sliding into chaos after a brilliantly-executed shooting war because we are more concerned about political correctness than victory. They added to the withdrawal drumbeat with the Frist-Warner alternative that demanded quarterly reports on the war's progress. The Republican leadership ran from the fight when the New York Times published national security secrets; ran from the fight on the trial and treatment of terrorists and terrorist wiretapping and, with the Democrat majority, running from Iraq.

While the Administration has done a masterful job in fighting terrorist activities here at home, its communications colossal ineptness vis Iraq and terrorism has empowered war opponents to spin the effort so that it is unrecognizable. What does it say about a White House communications operation when you have people within government and out saying 9/11 was an “inside job?” and the terrorism risk is overblown? It won’t be long before the media will say the reasons for no terror attacks are not because of increased vigilance, but because there was no real threat.

The Republicans worked very hard for this defeat. They've earned every lost seat.

More to come.