I would hope that we on the right will now say goodbye to a number of fantasies by which our leaders have operated over the last 6 years. We have this fantasy that our leaders are politically astute. I feel that we must acknowledge the opposite: Our president, bless his heart, is an incompetent politician. The outgoing leadership of both houses of congress are made up of incompetent politicians.

The president has never gotten comfortable with the idea that in this era of politics, it is necessary for the leaders of the party to stand up and pitch their agenda practically every day. As the highest elected official in the Republican party it has long been the president's responsibility to make the case for not only his policies, but those of the party. He has consistently shirked this responsibility.

As the leaders of their respective causcuses the House and Senate leadership are responsible for promoting the agenda of their caucuses and to make visible efforts to implement them. Neither leadership team accepted the sales portion of the job, and on the Senate side there was no visible effort to implement.

In one memorable incident, the Senate leadership publicly congratulated itself for "avoiding a confrontation" over the proper exercise of its constitutional authority. At that time I recall saying, "I want the confrontation." On fundamental issues it is imperative that the voter witness the party standing for something consistent with party ideals. Avoiding confrontation with your political opponents is not that. Worse, the desire to avoid confrontation puts the other side in charge. It is not dissimilar from indulging a badly behaved child. Rewarding tantrums guarantees more tantrums in the future. Announcing that you will avoid political confrontation guarantees that your opponents will use the threat of confrontation to control you.

I would hazard that there is no significant voting block of people who will vote Republican in hopes that they will allow their political opponents to roll them on every issue. That, unfortunately is exactly what the Frist-lead Republicans displayed and I argue it is the primary reason why Republicans failed to hold the Senate.

I would further suggest that there is no significant voting block that wishes to hear a litany of excuses for doing nothing, risking nothing and consequently seeming to stand for nothing from the Senate leadership. Nevertheless, this is the product we got from the Republican Senate leadership.

The House is more complex, but make no mistake: the same people vote for Congressmen as vote for Senators. If congress as a whole fails, both are harmed. The greater fault certainly was in the Senate this time, but by giving people nothing to vote for from congress as a whole, the Senate doomed the House majority as well.