It's the Corruption, Not the War

Karl Rove has some words of wisdom for 2008 candidates (from Bob Novak):

WASHINGTON -- Karl Rove, President Bush's political lieutenant, told a closed-door meeting of 2008 Republican House candidates and their aides Tuesday that it was less the war in Iraq than corruption in Congress that caused their party's defeat in the 2006 elections.

Rove's clear advice to the candidates is to distance themselves from the culture of Washington. Specifically, Republican candidates are urged to make clear they have no connection with disgraced congressmen such as Duke Cunningham and Mark Foley.

In effect, Rove was rebutting the complaint inside the party that George W. Bush is responsible for Republican miseries by invading Iraq.

I think Karl's right. There's a myth that's been promulgated by the Dems that the '06 election was all about the war, and that voters elected a slim Dem majority because they wanted to end the war. I don't believe it. Sure, for many Dems the election was all about the war, but for most of the voters that moved away from the Republican party, my guess is that Mark Foley, profligate spending by the GOP majority, and Republicans who failed to act and govern like Republicans were the major causes of the party's return to the minority.

I believe that had that election truly been about the war, you wouldn't have seen a 2 vote majority in the Senate and a 15 vote majority in the House. There would have been a historic blowout instead of bare majorities. Yes, the Dems won a lot of seats, but at the end of the counting, they won only a small majority.

The GOP certainly has the opportunity to turn it around next year, but '08 will depend much more on the outcome of the war. The emphasis of the media has been on defeat, which has been cheered on by the Dems, and should chaos continue over there (even if in only small areas of the country), it will affect the election. The Dems are desperately trying to get us out of there in order to secure defeat completely, and the last thing they want is for our troops to be in Iraq and the war in doubt come election day. They don't want people thinking about which party is more likely to push for victory.

The GOP needs to stay as far away from anything smelling like corruption as possible, including and especially earmark abuse. People like the Alaskan GOP contingent and their demands for "bridges to nowhere" and treating tax dollars as "their money" are hurting the entire party, and will be punished by the voters if it isn't stopped.