In 2004, after narrowly defeating John Kerry, President Bush boasted he had earned political capital and he intended to spend it.

What political capital, then, have Democrats just earned?

The dust has settled, most of the results are now in, and for Republicans, the results are not good. Democrats have taken solid control of the House, capturing 27 Republican-held seats and leading in two other races. They are on the verge of taking the Senate as well, with Democratic wins in Virginia and Montana likely, although not yet certain.

Ultimately, one can point to two things that cost Republicans this election: Mark Foley and Iraq. Exit polls indicated many voters were unhappy with Bush, with the war in Iraq, and with what they perceived to be corruption in Congress.

The jury is still out on the corruption—that issue will undoubtedly come up again and again in the not so distant future—but clearly Iraq is not going to go away anytime soon. To paraphrase an old saying: Republicans made their own bed on that one, and now they have to lie in it.

The “good” news for conservatives? We’ve essentially been operating with a Democratic-controlled Congress since Bush became president. Republicans technically controlled Congress, but the result was out of control government spending and big government policies. Maybe now that they’re no longer the party in power, Republicans will make some sort of attempt to return to their fiscally conservative roots.

Republicans are between a rock and a hard place right now. No one can defend Foley’s actions of course, but it would also be hard to defend the actions of any politician who knew what Foley was up to and failed to do his utmost to stop it. It’s also hard to defend the initial reaction to the Foley scandal (documented above), and that initial reaction itself now undermines Republican efforts to counteract frenzied Democratic attacks.

That’s one paragraph from my article “A Democrat’s Dream,” which appears in the latest issue of Civilized Revolt. The article deals with, perhaps obviously, the recent Mark Foley scandal and how Republicans should handle it.

Other articles include:

If I Were A White House Press Secretary by Jarret Mock
Accepting the Giants by Noah Stansbury
God-In-A-Box by Darcy Ingraham

So head on over and check it out. In addition, remember that a new issue of Virtue Magazine will be coming out next week!

Tom DeLay, the scandal-plagued former House Majority Leader, announced today that he is resigning from Congress. He presumably will also be ending his current re-election campaign.

This is probably the best thing for everyone involved. Regardless of whether DeLay actually committed any crime himself or not, the corruption surrounding him is impossible to defend and did not reflect well on him.

From the AP:

DeLay reflected Republican concerns that the GOP could lose the seat in November, saying his love and loyalty to the party played a role in his decision and adding, “I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative, personal campaign.”

President Bush said Tuesday that DeLay had informed him of his decision Monday afternoon.

“I wish him all the best,” Bush told reporters during a brief White House session, adding, “It had to have been a very difficult decision for someone who loved representing his district in the state of Texas.”

Bush said the Republican Party won’t suffer from DeLay’s decision to resign from Congress. “My own judgment is that our party will continue to succeed because we are the party of ideas.”

DeLay relinquished the post as House majority leader last fall after his indictment in Texas as part of an investigation into the allegedly illegal use of funds for state legislative races. He decided in January against trying to get the leadership post back as an election-year corruption scandal staggered Republicans and emboldened minority Democrats.

The AP is reporting that a Texas criminal court has denied Tom DeLay’s request that money laundering charges against him be dismissed or sent back to a lower court. The announcement came only days after DeLay announced he was stepping down as House majority leader. He is still planning on running for re-election next year, however.

In other news:

Both Vice President Dick Cheney and California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar have run into some health-related problems of their own, albeit not nearly as severe as Sharon’s.

Cheney was hospitalized at 3 a.m. this morning due to shortness of breath, and was released four to five hours later. Apparently he was running into fluid retention problems related to medication he takes.

Schwarzeneggar was in a motorcycle accident and had to get 15 stitches.

And finally, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was bumped off the top spot at the box office this week by, ironically enough, Hostel. The R-rated horror flick took in $20 million dollars, while Narnia fell to $15 million. King Kong was third at $12.5 million.

For those of us who are Star Wars fans:

Actor Michael Sheard, who played Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back, has died of cancer at the age of 65.

Sheard also appeared in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, where he played the role of Adolph Hitler. Sheard played Hitler a total of five times in his acting career.

More on Sheard can be found here.

In Star Wars, he was memorably choked by Darth Vader – and said George Lucas told him it was “the best screen death I’ve ever seen”.

At the time, Star Wars was “just another part in a very busy actor’s career”, he said, but it has secured him a place in the hearts of Star Wars fans and an Admiral Ozzel action figure came out last year.

In his book “Where the Right Went Wrong,” conservative Pat Buchanan listed some of the pet projects that our dear U.S. congressmen, including those on the GOP side of the floor, routinely load bills down with.

Among some of the better ones:

$2 million for the First Tee Program, which teaches young people to play golf.

$50,000 for a tattoo-removal project in San Luis Obispo.

$40 million for the construction of a cargo terminal in the port of Philadelphia to support “high-speed military sealift and other military purposes” vessels which, as [Sen. John] McCain notes, “do not even exist, nor are they being championed by the military.”

$220,000 for the Blueberry Hill Farm in Maine.

$200,000 for recreational improvements in North Pole, Alaska.

$270,000 to combat “goth culture” in Blue Springs, Missouri.

$100,000 for the renovation of the Coca-Cola building in Macon, George [what, a company like Coca-Cola can’t afford to renovate its own buildings?].

$90,000 for fruit fly research in Motpeillier, France.

$150,000 for therapeutic horseback riding in Apple Valley, California.

$6 million for sea lions in Alaska.

$7.3 million for Hawaiian sea turtles.

$200,000 for the West Oahu campus of the University of Hawaii for the making of a documentary film called “Primal Quest.”

Folks, this is your Republican-controlled Congress at work. Just remember that the next time you receive your paycheck and see the amount taken out for taxes, this is the kind of thing it’s helping pay for.

And if I can do a bit of self-promotion here, a more thorough review of Buchanan’s book will be appearing soon in Virtue Magazine.