The other First 100 Days

I was talking to a reporter yesterday who made an interesting point. Obama just completed his first 100 days. But there was another 100 days as well. The Republican first 100 days... in opposition. And they didn't do so well. Here is Dan Balz in yesterday's Washington Post:

How much more can the Republicans take? Demoralized, shrinking and seemingly lacking an agenda beyond the word "no," Republicans today saw their ranks further thinned with the stunning news that Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter is switching parties and will run for reelection in 2010 as a Democrat....

[T]he Republican Party continues to contract, especially outside the South, and that it appears increasingly less welcome to politicians and voters who do not consider themselves solidly conservative. Northeast Republicans have gone from an endangered species to a nearly extinct species. Republicans lost ground in the Rocky Mountains and the Midwest in the last two elections. That's no way to build a national party.

Balz adds:

Republicans have been on a downward slide for the past four years, a decline that began not long after the reelection of former president George W. Bush in 2004. Many Republicans have blamed most of the party's problems on Bush's leadership. But the problems go deeper than any one person. Specter's shocking departure may provide a wakeup call to Republicans that a broad reassessment is now urgently needed.

It's not about George Bush. He was an abject failure, to be sure, but Republicans fool themselves when they blame Bush as some kind of aberration. The only problem, they say, is that Bush wasn't a true conservative. In fact, the only problem was that he was. He cut taxes. He took us to war, repeatedly. He deregulated and favored business over the individual. He opposed abortion and bashed the gays. And what did it get us?

The Republicans need to wake up and smell the Kool-Aid. George Bush didn't fail because he wasn't conservative enough. George Bush failed because he was a true Republican. America of the 21st century needs more than tax cuts.