The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Sore Losing

11.9.06 @ 12:01AM

DR. PERFECT
Re: David Hogberg's Losing the Senate Too:

I am amazed and impressed that Mr. Hogberg once again called the state by state numbers exactly the way they came out. First the electoral college in 2004 and now the Senate in 2006. This guy is scary good!
-- John Horner
Morgan Hill, California

THE BIG HURT
Re: Philip Klein's Renewing the Contract:

Amen, sir, amen.
-- Terry Smith

I sure hope people are reading this.
-- Jeffrey Ring
Lorton, Virginia

Fantastic perspective of yesterday, today and tomorrow for the Republicans. Thanks!
-- Joanna Palumbo

I am reading your election post-mortem, and your reflections on the "renewal" of the "contract." But I can't help wondering: Where are the likes of a Newt Gingrich and a Vin Weber in the current band of GOP House members? Two years is not much time to spawn people of the caliber of Gingrich & Weber.
-- Peter Petzling
on-line reader in Minnesota

Totally agree with your assessment. As an ardent pro-lifer I am dismayed by the two year setback but the BIG issue is still out there. JUDGES. I also strongly feel the Republicans will be more effective under Mitch McConnell and hopefully someone like pence in the house. We'll see.
-- Annette Cwik

Conservatives lost big. For those who think losing is winning welcome to the wilderness. Those who believe the stealth Democrat candidates are conservatives just need to look back at Richard Gephardt to see how they'll behave. The Rodham-Clinton/Obama ticket is now poised to win in 2008.
-- Michael Tomlinson
Crownsville, Maryland

Disappointing night as it was, the Republicans lost that on major issues that they let down the base. GWB started off by collaborating with Ted Kennedy on Education. He ended with Guest Worker Program/Amnesty and in the interim he expanded government, schmoozed with the Clintons, forgot Soc Sec Reform and didn't fight to win in Iraq. I am stunned that the Democrats will now be in charge. I grieve for our troops. But… I can't even finish that sentence. Sent up there on Capital Hill with such promise, retained on their response to 9/11, and now this. I guess we all deserve what we voted for, but I can't help but think that we are now turning into Europe.
-- Alice Mollison
Texas

What do we have to look forward to in the next two years?

-- Impeachment hearings by April, eagerly covered by a biased, partisan media.
-- Amnesty for illegals, which only the Republican majority in the House stopped before.
-- Defunding the War on Terror in particular, and the military in general.
-- No judicial confirmations, or a host of new judges like David Souter and Anthony Kennedy.
-- A constitutional right to clone and kill (passed narrowly by Missouri voters) that will spread like the plague.
-- A flat or declining stock market, starting today.
-- Renewed terror attacks against Israel and the United States.

Running as a Republican in many states is like playing basketball in your opponent's gym. To come out with a victory, you need to be at least six points better than your opponent, because all the breaks and close calls will be going to them. The Republican team clearly needs to work on its "game."

Much has been made of the success of so-called "moderate" Democrats. When it comes to voting behavior at the national level, there is no such thing as a moderate Democrat. Democrat Party leadership makes it abundantly clear that it will neuter any wayward member that fails to toe the party line on any vote it deems important. It will take a while before the voters that elected these supposedly moderate freshmen learn, as I did, that today's Democrat Party has no place for moderates except to win local elections in red states.

I also disagree with those who say the GOP should have kissed and made up with Linc Chaffee in order to keep a Senate majority. If Chafee, who spoke and often voted as a Democrat, was promised an attractive committee chairmanship, and thought he could avoid being made inconsequential in the way Jeffords was, he would likely have betrayed the Republicans in a minute. While it would have been better to purge the party of RINO's in 2002 when it was stronger (how many votes do you think Rick Santorum lost for supporting for Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey?), it still may be better off without its Linc Chafees.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Foreign Policy, Education, Mainstream Media, Social Security, Islam, Books, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Communism, Conservatism, Immigration, Energy