Hope

Tony Blankley has a message of hope for conservatives, frustrated with the current state of their party. He notes that Republicans are having a tough time based on three issues; Iraq, Immigration and perception of corruption in the Republican Party.

The third one is interesting, because he's not talking about the sort of corruption that sends Senator Craig to the Mens Room. He's talking about being big spenders.

While it will take years for the Republicans to live down their recent big spending and corrupt ways, their big advantage on this is that they will be running against Democrats -- who have suffered from a justified reputation for similar waywardness for generations, even centuries.

Centuries might be stretching it a bit.

This is one of those baffling paradoxes - Republicans claim to be opposed to spending - it's practically their mantra. But given the chance they rarely act on it. Why? Because the sad truth is that Senators and Representatives are beholden to local interests. And while people in Biloxi are bang up along side of screwing the people of New York, they want to keep their own piece of the pie just the way it is, or even a little bigger if possible.

Anyway you get Blankley's answer to corruption - no big deal. We just have to trash Democrats faster than they trash us. Historically that hasn't been a problem for Republicanoids.

Immigration he notes is a dead issue, at least where Amnesty is concerned. And Republicans can use Democrats pro immigrant stance against them.

But the war is where he really lays on the hope. He asks the question that so many Republicans have asked before - "What if the war starts going great?" Well if that happens, maybe it will hurt Democrats. But it seems pretty damned unlikely at this point.

Still you gotta have hope, I suppose. And who knows, maybe Republicans will be screwing this country just as bad 3 years from now as they are today.