In just two short years, Republicans have gone from being champs to being chumps. In 2004, the Republicans were voted control of all three branches of the federal government and most state governorships. Today, they are left wondering what hit them.
Now that Democrats are in control on Capitol Hill, President Bush has expressed hopes of getting a bipartisan immigration bill. The only bipartisan bill that can get past a Democratic Congress is an amnesty bill, which can be a down payment on another Republican defeat in 2008.
If the people in the White House do not understand how outraged their supporters were at this year's attempt to pass an amnesty bill for illegals -- virtually guaranteeing that even more millions will come -- then it is hard to know what message they got from the Republicans' recent debacle at the polls.
Immigration was not the only issue but it was part of the more general issue of betrayal, which includes the Republicans' runaway spending, among other things.
If the Republican leaders have learned nothing from their recent defeat, perhaps some Republican supporters will. Some of the most baffling e-mails received from conservative Republicans before the election were those which said that they were so disillusioned and/or disgusted with the Bush administration that they were going to vote for Democrats in order to send a message.
This is the kind of emotional self-indulgence common among liberals but apparently some conservatives have now also come to see elections as occasions to vent their feelings rather than to choose among existing options for the future of the country.
Sending a message may have its benefits but -- as with all benefits -- the question must be asked: "At what cost?"
On the left, it is considered OK to say things like "open space" or "alternative fuels" without any thought of the cost. What is new is finding the same spirit now flourishing among some conservatives as well.
As events unfold over time, perhaps those conservatives will reconsider whether it was worth it to "send a message" to President Bush at the cost of making Senator Pat Leahy chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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