A party that stands for nothing

Official Republican shock at the loss this week of one of the party's safest House seats is amusing at best. Are these political professionals so removed from reality that they don't realize the Republican imprimatur is the kiss of death across the country? Maybe they need to talk to a few more people beyond the Beltway that aren't on their payrolls.

This was in Mississippi, too, which actually has one of the most effective Republican leaders around in Gov. Haley Barbour. His handling of the aftermath of Katrina versus that of officialdom in Louisiana is a lesson in good governance.

We're not even talking about the desert that George W. Bush has made of the conservative movement. It's painful to watch so-called conservative leaders clinging to the last vestiges of the Bush presidency and perhaps even more so witnessing their growing allegiance to John McCain's candidacy. When that nomination is settled in Minneapolis-St. Paul this summer, it will effectively mark the end of the Reagan Revolution once and for all.

Mr. McCain is now courting liberals and independents with a distinctly soft-left message, so his nomination also will further blur the distinctions between Republicans and Democrats. With the two parties then virtually identical in their positions, except perhaps for the GOP's continued endorsement of the Iraq war, the contest will boil down to which one has the most attractive candidate, and that's Barack Obama hands-down.

Peggy Noonan puts it beautifully in today's Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party's fortunes from the president's. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn't be left with a ruined "brand," as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.

Sad but true.