[lonestar67]

I still think an analysis ought to account for staying home because Bush will not seal the border crowd.

I still believe that is the fundamental reason that Republicans lost.

[skinkinthegrass]

sounds, like they're still confused....

[gcruse]

“But there’s a chance—just a chance—that the Republicans who left the GOP in 2006 will have reason to return to the fold.”

If Repubs run anyone but Fred Thompson for president, there’s no reason for anyone returning to the fold.

[sirchtruth]

As the authors of the Third Way report note, these results ought to give pause to those in the political class who have all but guaranteed a Democratic victory in 2008.

You can warn the DBM/dems til you're blue in the face, it still won't change their arrogant stupidity!

[MindBender26]

"The Lay of the Land"

That's what we all called a rather "friendly" , and "incredibly gymnastic" young lady who worked as a school teacher near Ft. Sill in the '60s.

[Don Carlos]

I didn’t see any mention of the “Drunk Sailor Syndrome”, nor the pathetic response to the illegal alien crisis. IMO, these two areas were the primary cause of the ‘06 fiasco.

[Cacique]

Interesting

[dforest]

If Fred Thompson enters this race, and he will, the libs of both parties better look out. Most of the people want a sane, rational adult, not some untrustworthy liberal freak.

[timydnuc]

How about the limp wristed, Nancy Boy, gutless leadership of the Congressional GOP.

On election day I went to the polls, as I always have, and voted straight GOP, but I know some that were just fed up with the total lack of testicles that was demonstrated by the MAJORITY GOP. I agreed with them but I couldn't set back and let the RATS have the majority.

We, as a party, had better come up with another "contract with America" that has some teeth or we are dead. I don't think that HRC (the ODB) can win but unless we can get back those people that voted for the "Contract" back in '94 we can kiss the majority good bye until we do figure it out.

[Political Junkie Too]

Are they ignoring the impact of the late hit on Mark Foley, lumping it into overall "corruption," or saying that it had no effect at all?

-PJ

[keret]

Matthew Continetti takes a huge leap in his comments on Lay of the Land and the Great Shift Risk. Trying to cover up the war is like trying to hide a gorilla in the closet!!! C’mon Matthew, you don’t expect readers to believe this! But then again, the ‘right’ has conditioned its followers to believe just about anything that supports its “principles. And what a huge following the ‘right’ has by all the hate mail!!

I believe it is most important to understand that the “traditional” Republicans – who have rallied against guns and gays and abortion – are finding that their emperor truly has no clothes as he parades under the mantra of his missions accomplished.

And perhaps the best example of the shift can be found right here in Virginia. Webb offered Virginians a substantive set of qualifications. He was a Marine combat infantry veteran, Annapolis Grad, Georgetown University Law grad, former Secretary of the Navy, and author of seven books. He also noticed that 10 percent of Virginians lived in poverty, and wanted to do something about that. The substance of Sen. Allen was that he was a 54-year old redneck, pork chompin, tobacco chewing, cowboy from Orange County (California!!). Allen’s principal credential was that he was George Bush’s lapdog!!! And given the choice of substance over lapdog – albeit Allen’s strong allegiance to God, the flag, and all things good, and his opposition to gays and all things evil, Webb won.

Notwithstanding Continetti’s thesis that this was a one-time deal, I believe that Americans, like Virginians, will realize that they have been taken for a ride….and the ride comes to a dead-halt in 2008.

As an aside, I believe that another major Webb contribution during the election of 2006 was that he was one of the first in the Nation to call for regional diplomacy to end the war – heresy last year. And where is Secretary Rice spending her time these days?? She’s shuttling all over the Middle East – something we should have done in the first place in 2003. And Webb was telling the nation in 2002 that the huge cultural differences throughout the Middle East would marginalize any war efforts that we might undertake.

He has also introduced legislation that will provide meaningful financial assistance to Iraq war veterans so they can get a college education. That legislation is one of the most decent things that our Nation can offer the men and women who have put their lives on the line. Not only is it decent, it is economic in helping to spare veterans and their families some of the post-traumas of war when they can get an education and work in mainstream society. The “Lay of the Land” is in the eyes of the beholder...and it is time for the ‘right’ to come to its senses!!!!

[dfwgator]

The Republican Party has taken a left turn, that’s for sure.