GOP Evading certain easy victory.....

This could be exhibit A: why the Republican brand is in trouble:

By C. Edmund Wright 

It is rare when bad news for the American people is good news for Republicans (at least conservatives), but such is the case now with the energy crisis. Having said that, since the aftermath of the 1994 election, you could generally count on the GOP to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at every possible opportunity. (they allowed Bill Clinton to take credit for the "Gingrich Contract with America economy"....almost lost elections to Gore and Kerry...think about that) Such could well be the case this week.

First, with the nation squarely on the side of conservative Republicans (and logic) philosophically on the energy-oil-drilling issue, the partys' senate caucus (or part of it) and its Presidential nominee are doing everything they can to insure that many voters don't realize that.

Consider: Bold House Republicans embarked on a strategy that was going to unmask the truth of this debate to even the most casual observer. Nancy Pelosi had painted herself into a rhetorical corner and was dripping that paint all over herself everytime she got close to a microphone. George Bush's tough talk on drilling had impacted the oil futures market significantly, sucking the wind out of the "take ten years" argument. The party's common sense conservative strategy, the markets, voter attention spans, etc, were all coming into alignment and threatening to reverse the so called "Democratic tilt" to the 2008 election.

For decades, 90% of all Republicans have been on the right side of this issue...and during the same time span 90% of all Democrats had been wrong. And with gas pumps showing 4's (and sometimes 5s) on their marquees, this was sinking into the voters' minds. There was a sea change coming.

But enter Lindsay Graham. Follwing in the footsteps of his hero McCain, Graham was hell bent on "reaching across the aisle to get something done." Totally misreading the very obvious tea leaves that  are brewing across the nation, Graham and four Republican friends decided to trust worn out focus group cliches over common sense and compromise with Democrats. With millions of Americans yearning to their core for leaders who will DEFEAT liberals in congress on this issue, the "gang of ten" has done for the GOP on energy what the "gang of 14" did for the party on judges. That is, to screw it up totally so they can pat themselves on the back for being bi-partisan.

And just to make sure a glorious week would turn into an un-mitigated disaster, the McCain Campaign was pulling muscles doing the same thing....reaching across the aisle. The talk of naming Joe Lieberman as veep candidate re-surfaced...and this time with more seeming momentum than either of the last two sightings. No more talk of Romney. Not a peep about Palin or Jindal. Nope. It looks like Lieberman. Or perhaps meely moderate RINO Tom Ridge, who fashioned Homeland Security into a big government union thug's dream agency that embarrasses itself by strip searching grandmothers in airports.

To quote that famous election wrecker Ross Perot, I hear a "giant sucking sound." And this time, it is the wind coming out of the once rapidly expanding Republican election sails. More proof that the DC based career bureaucrats and pundits are driving a wedge deeper and deeper between this party and it's base voters.