"Amid the ruins of the GOP's majority there is a clear culprit."

Hugh Hewitt blames McCain -- whom I heard at the end of the night talking frankly to Larry King about all the mistakes we'd made in Iraq -- and insinuates that he should forget about being the Republican nominee for president.

McCain looked exhausted (as did almost everyone last night, from Mehlman to Obama), and was making less than no attempt at Republican consolatory rah-rah. Is he already setting himself up for an independent run?

Hewitt also suggests that Rick Santorum will crop up again -- as a nominee for a Supreme Court seat, should one open up.

Comments

[m.takhallus]

Hugh Hewitt's an idiot. Blame McCain?

Blame Katrina and Iraq. Blame economic disparities. And blame the fact that Dems have learned to play the game the way the GOP does.

And Ricky Santorum will never be appointed to the Supreme Court. Santorum is done.

[Icepick]

Holy crap! Santorum on the Supreme Court? Ugh! Amongst the (richly deserved) ruin of the Republican Party last night, one of the bright spots is kicking Santorum out of the Senate. Please, PLEASE don't let him get nominated or confirmed. Of course, confirmation is somewhat less likely with the Senate being nominally Democratic now.

And Hewitt is nuts. The reason the Republicans went down was because they pissed off the small government/fiscally conservative types in their own party. Note to Hugh: It's the spending, stupid! Several of the winning Democrats were either more moderate or even conservative types. (Heath Shuler, for example. And then there's that candidate for John Birch Society Man of the Year, James Webb.) We lost because we had long abandoned principles for political expediency.

And now we get to see important House committees led by the ethically challenged John Murtha (rumored to be getting Appropriations in return for not running against Hoyer) and Alcee Hastings (Intelligence). And even more interesting will be seeing what Waxman, Conyers and especially Rangle do with their newly won Chairmanships. Fun times await!

[Icepick]

Hah! While I was typing Tak beat me to the punch! This election has truly brought Americans together....

[Charles Martin]

Good God. What is Hewitt smoking?

[Mark Daniels]

Amba:
Hugh has to be credited for doing some really creative spinning...but it has zero plausibility.

http://markdaniels.blogspot.com/2006/11/this-spin-has-me-spinning.html

Mark

[Pastor_Jeff]

As I mentioned on the other thread, I think the blame lies with arrogance, corruption, mismanagement, surprising tone-deafness, and abandonment of traditional Republican values.

[wj]

Pastor Jeff hits the right buttons -- although I might shuffle the order slightly.

Still, love him or hate him, how anyone with the slightest grip on reality can blame McCain for all those is beyond me. But then, lack of grip on reality was part of the Republican party's problem in these elections, wasn't it.

[Tom Strong]

Yglesias, Kevin Drum, and Josh Marshall are all resisting the contention that this election will shift the Democrats towards the right. Since all three of them would have been considered moderates even three years ago (though not anymore), I'm not sure what to make of that.

While Hewitt is a maroon, I think he's right that Santorum will be back - in some capacity. The last place I want to see him is on the Supreme Court, though.

Tell you what - tt sure is weird to go to Democratic blogs and see...exultation.

[Tom Strong]

I'll also say that, while I'm no fan of his, I'm intrigued by the opportunity this provides Lieberman. The leadership of both parties may be eating out of his hand for the next few years.

[amba]

Yep. Lieberman is in a position to lead an independent movement -- beholden to neither party, willing to work with one or both as long as they are sane, but with no craven need for either of them if they don't -- able to walk away like the Pied Piper with a long trail of voters behind them.

Democrats must be awfully rusty at exultation! You can really get out of the habit of being happy. And then too, there's only a moment to be happy before the reality of the crushing responsibility hits -- of being able, and therefore obligated, to DO SOMETHING.

[Alan S C]

Hewitt's claim is identical to what the Dem bloggers were saying two years ago. Basically: we lost because we were too moderate and too willing to compromise.

Yeah, Hewitt. That's it. It had nothing to do with being blazenly hubristic. The real problem was McCain refused to let y'all destroy the fillibuster.

In defeat comes many dellusions.

[karen]

"... Handed a large majority, the GOP frittered it away. The chief fritterer was Senator McCain and his Gang of 14 and Kennedy-McCain immigration bill, supplemented by a last minute throw down that prevented the NSA bill from progressing or the key judicial nominations from receiving a vote. His accomplice in that master stroke was Senator Graham. Together they cost their friend Mike DeWine his seat in the Senate, and all their Republican colleagues their chairmanships. Senator McCain should rethink his presidential run. Amid the ruins of the GOP's majority there is a clear culprit."

Isn't McCain the very definition of, as PJ states, "... abandonment of traditional Republican values." ?

I admire McCain, but he wasn't exactly a uniter in the Repulican Senate, now was he. (I think he was trying to be the ~Decider~ :0)).

[Ruth Anne]

Boy am I glad there's a filibuster intact now that the Republicans are the minority party.

[Ruth Anne]

Today I said that there are many small rivulets of Republican blood that have been spilled. Many of those rivulets lead back to the knife of that whack-job McCain.