Could Have, Would Have, Should Have - Fred Barnes

REPUBLICANS FACE THE PROSPECT of losing a substantial number of Senate and House seats today, but it didn't have to be that way. For sure, the war in Iraq was always going to be a drag on Republicans. And an election in the sixth year of a presidency is often perilous for the president's party, a pattern that's held true in year six of the Bush era.
But Republicans have made matters worse by abandoning the reform agenda that animated their capture of Congress in 1994 and helped George W. Bush win the White House in 2000 and keep it in 2004. With scarcely a fight, Republicans gave up on Social Security reform in 2005, immigration reform in 2006, and never really got started on tax reform. Bush also cast aside the overarching theme for his domestic policy--the Ownership Society--without an explanation.