I have been thinking about this issue and wonder if the people weren't really saying they are upset with the general feeling of entitlement oozing out of Republican Washington. The kind of self centered entitlement that lets a congressman earmark some pet project for his district (the "bridge to nowhere") or his friends on K-Street (Jack Aberoff), or lets Denny Hastert think he can cover up for Mark Foley who he needs to raise money from rich Treasure Coast Republicans, or lets Tom Delay change the rules to gerrymander a "permanent" majority, or lets Bill Frist think he can declare a brain dead woman responsive by watching a tape recording, or lets Phill Kline leak patient records to Bill O'Reilly as part of an anti-abortion campaign. Some might call all those things signs of hubris. For many they are signs of corruption--politicians who have put themselves ahead of their duty to the country.

Look at who took some of the hardest hits the other night. For every Jim Talent there was a Conrad Burns, a Rick Santorium and a George Allen. What do the later three have in common. They all gave the impression to anybody who cared to watch them prance around Washington that they were more than willing to put their personal agendas ahead of their duties as senators. That is they were all corrupt.

What amazes me is that nobody seems to have caught on that among the worst hit were some of Fox News' favorite talking heads.

I'd not see concerns over corruption and concerns over Iraq being mutually exclusive. As shown by Duke Cunnigham, there's been lots of fraud, waste, corruption and self-dealing in reconstructing Iraq in particular and the war on al-Qaeda generally. It seems to me that doing some basic oversight there is a good place to start illuminating the whole crooked edifice.

I think heckblazer is right. If you add wild-eyed spending from the party that claims to be in favor of smaller government, the Repubs managed to alienate much of their base as well as independents. That's one heckuva trick.