Learning the wrong lessons

From The Washington Post:

MIAMI, Nov. 30 -- Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman warned a somber and diminished gathering of GOP governors that the party will face years in the political wilderness unless it corrects the mistakes that led to last month's election losses.

"If we shrug our shoulders and say, 'It was just a fluke, a perfect storm of factors out of our control,' then we will lose again in 2008," Mehlman told the Republican Governors Association at its annual meeting, as he prepares to step down from the RNC at the end of the year.

"If that is the approach we take, then we are destined to spend far more than one term in the minority," Mehlman added. "And we as a party will deserve it."

So far so good. Someone seems to be getting the message.

Mehlman acknowledged voter anger about the Iraq war and a spate of GOP corruption scandals, but he pointed to a broader culprit: the erosion of the core conservative principles of small government and personal responsibility. As Republicans built up their Washington power base, he noted, the center of gravity shifted away from the statehouses that had been the traditional laboratories for policy ideas. The result was a vacuum that delivered little of interest to voters, while devaluing the national Republican brand.

For their part, the governors pointed to vivid images of federal incompetence that had dragged the party down, including the botched response to Hurricane Katrina and Congress's inability to curb spending or tackle issues that voters care about, such as illegal immigration. And they decried the ethics scandals that hurt the party, such as when then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned from Congress in September after revelations that he had sent sexually suggestive electronic messages to underage male pages and that House Republican leaders had known about his behavior but had not responded aggressively.

So far so good. But then this:

. . . Mehlman told the GOP governors, back to "good policy that makes good politics." He singled out an effort by outgoing Gov. Mitt Romney, another 2008 prospect, to expand health-care coverage to all Massachusetts residents. "That is the kind of innovation we need at the state level, and in Washington," Mehlman said.

If this is the lesson that the Republican Party takes away from the '06 losses then both the Republican Party and the United States of America are royally screwed.

Republicans did not lose control of the House and Senate because the weren't socialist enough!

Republican lost because the rash of scandals within the Party made them look like they had the morals of Democrats and their spending spree made them look like they had the fiscal indiscipline of Democrats.

When you give people a choice between a democrat and a Democrat they will usually choose the Democrat.