Our panel of experts thumps away at defeated Republicans—but in a most constructive manner.W.James Antic IIITHE REPUBLICANS SQUANDERED the Opportunitiesunified control of the federal government off-ered them and paid a steep electoral price—anend to their 12-year reign in the House, a loss of themajority of governorships, the slow and painful attri-tion of their 10-seat margin in the Senate. Worse, thewarning signs had been obvious for at least a year andneither the White House nor the GOP congressionalleadership responded effectively.Since the 2004 election, GOP leaders did little toelicit enthusiasm from their base and even less toappeal to swing voters who were becoming increasing-ly alienated from their policies. The Republicans failedto live up to their stated principles of limited govern-ment, fiscal responsibility, and personal accountabili-ty. Just as damagingiy, they have neglected theimportant task of connecting these principles to anagenda that addresses the problems that most con-cern the electorate.If Republicans aren't trusted with the nation'spocketbook or its defenses, they can't win. The spend-ing spree of the last few years has jeopardized thattrust with fiscal policy; Iraq is beginning to harm theparty's reputation on national security. The resigna-tion of Donald Rumsfeld was a belated acknowledge-ment of this latter point, but personnel changes arenot enough—and slogans like "stay the course" do notamount to a policy. Congressional Republicans bear asmuch blame as President Bush.For crestfallen conservatives, there is a silver lin-ing. Every major conservative victory of the last 40years has come after a Repubhcan defeat. The move-ment's political empowerment followed Bariy Gold-water's defeat; Ronald Reagan's election in 1980 wasmade possible by Gerald Ford's loss four years earlier;the triumphs of 1994 followed George H.W. Bush'sdefeat by Bill Clinton in the previous cycle.And conservatives thrive in opposition. They de-feated Hillarycare, rebuffed the energy tax, and camewithin one vote in each chamber of rejecting the Clin-ton tax increase with fewer seats than they will hold inthe next Congress. They can do it again.The era of big government conservatism is over.Republicans can embrace that reality or continue tolose elections, 'wW. James Antle III is assistant editor of The AmericanSpectator.Michael l^aroneREPUBLICANS LOST. That pretty much says it. Themargins were close in many cases, agonizinglyclose in the Senate races in Virginia andMontana. But a lot of elections are close, and over thecourse of history Republicans have probably won theirfair share. From the returns I've looked at, the Rove-Mehlman turnout machine worked, perhaps even bet-ter than in 2004. But not all the people who werepersuaded to vote seem to have voted Republican.George W. Bush, in accepting Donald Rumsfeld's res-ignation the day after the election and invitingDemocrats to present their ideas on entitlements,seems to be taking the course set by ArnoldSchwarzenegger after he was defeated in four referen-dums in November 2005. Having failed to beat the14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 2006/JANUARY 2007opposition, he is prepared to join them. Schwarz-enegger hired one of Gray Davis's top staffers to be hischief of staff. To replace Rutnsfeld Bush is nominatingRobert Gates, who served in the Carter administrationas well as the Bush 41 administration. Not exactly aDemocrat, but one likely to be more acceptable toDemocrats on the Hill.In inviting the Democrats to offer their ideas on"entitlements," Bush presumably meant Social Sec-urity. He seems to be looking for some genuine domes-tic achievement in his last two years, though thatachievement may not be exactly what conservativeswould like.Bill Clinton tried to make his party a naturalmajority. He got close—Al Gore and John Kerry bothgot 48 percent of the vote—but fell shott. George W.Bush tried to make his party a natural majority. Heseemed well on the way after the 2004 elections. Butnow he has fallen short, too. That leaves the field openfor 2008.1 take the Democrats' victories as a rebukemore of the competence of the Bush administrationthan of its ideology. But the fact is that this adminis-tration seems mostly out of new ideas. It has accom-phshed a lot of the goals Bush set out in the 2000 and2004 campaigns. It has been stymied on others. TheDemocrats offered little in the way of new ideas in thecampaign. But the Republicans didn't offer mucheither.We'll see if either side does now. Bush is trying torope the Democrats into sharing the responsibihty forongoing governance. It will fall to presidential candi-dates of both parties to set agendas for the futurebeyond January 20,2009. VMichael Barone is setiior writer at U.S. News & WorldReport and author of The Almanac of AmericanPolitics.John II. FundWITH ALMOST ONE OUT OF TEN GOP HoUSeincumbents turned out by voters in theNovember election, some of the mostardent conservative supporters of the GOP are almostrelieved. "I feel liberated," Rush Limbaugh told hisradio audience. "I no longer have to carry the water forpeople who don't deserve it."Rep. Mike Pence, chair of the conservative Re-publican Study Committee, was even more forthright:"We did not just lose our majority, we lost our way."Mr. Pence made it clear that he believes Re-publicans must internalize the fact that "while thescandals of the 109th Congress harmed our cause, thegreatest scandal in Washington, DC, is runaway fed-eral spending." He noted that pork-barrel earmarks,midnight votes to pass entitlement programs, and lackof congressional oversight were "not in the Contractwith America back in 1994 and Hepubhcan voters said'enough is enough.'"Indeed, Repubhcan National Committee staffersreport that one of the reasons they were surprised bythe depth of the GOP defeat was that they met most ifnot all of their targets for turning out GOP voters. "Theproblem is that once we got them to the polls somewere angry enough with us to vote Democratic or forthird parties," reports one RNC staffer.Those angry voters weren't alone. The GOP strat-egy firm OnMessage Inc. surveyed voters in 12 compet-itive districts just before November 7 and concludedthat "the Republican brand is broken and needs signif-icant rehab." One example is the poll's finding that only22 percent of those surveyed said Republicans wouldcredibly work to reduce the deficit, as opposed to 47percent who thought Democrats would. The onlybright spot in