The loss has already shaken establishment Republicans in Washington. After losing special elections in Illinois and Louisiana, the House GOP conference already expects a bad year for their party. But those two districts voted for President Bush by eleven and nineteen points, respectively, not by a whopping twenety five points. “People are going to want change,” said a top aide to a leading House Republican. “The excuses, that [Davis] didn’t have the resources or that he wasn’t from the right part of the district, that’s just not going to hold up.”RealClearPolitics

The problem isn’t that we lost Hastert’s old seat, or the Louisiana seat, or the seat in Mississippi last night. The problem is that the Republican establishment is actually shocked about it. You can’t fix a problem you don’t acknowledge. Talk radio, conservative pundits, the blogosphere, we have all been warning the GOP in Washington what is coming and they’ve plugged their ears with their fingers.

No one, though, is likely to try to force leadership changes before November.

And that’s the other problem. Conservatives don’t take the party seriously anymore and there is no reason to. Their actions haven’t done anything to signal a lesson learned from 2006. They have made no effort whatsoever to renew their contract with America. The party is in dire need of new leadership immediately and a complete break from the big government, big spending, neo-conservatism that the Bush administration has wrought on us all. Until they do we are going to lose and keep losing. 2008 will be 2006 the Sequel.

U. of Okla. freshman, 19, elected mayor of Muskogee