Dems and that sinking feeling (Part 3)

I opined previously (here) that the Dems understandably had a sinking feeling heading into Tuesday's election. They certainly are feeling groovy right now, but I think they sense that this election was a bit of a perfect (political) storm. As Jonah Goldberg asserts in this op/ed,

. . . corruption and cronyism aren't core planks in the conservative platform either. Rep. Don Sherwood (R., Pa.) lost his seat because of an alleged personal scandal, but I can assure you there's nothing in the works of Edmund Burke that says a good conservative should try to strangle his mistress.

In other words, just as Democrats insisted, the GOP's drubbing had more to do with incompetence and scandal than program and ideology.

Consequently, this chastening by the electorate can only steel the GOP for future campaign battles.

Another great point of the op/ed is that the GOP's "social conservatism" is not what cost the GOP this election:

Philosophically, reasonable people may differ about whether there's been too much social conservatism, but politically, this is idiotic. As Ramesh Ponnuru notes in the National Review, Christian conservatives give the GOP as many votes as labor and blacks combined give to the Democrats. It's to the Republicans' electoral advantage to take positions that shock the conscience of Rosie O'Donnell.

There are several well-crafted post-election assessments over at NationalReview.com.