The GOP and Complacency

I'm listening to my "tape" of last night's Blew Blewitt show and there is an interesting exchange between Hugh and RNC Chair Ken Mehlman that I wanted to bring to everyone's attention.

From Radioblogger's transcript:

HH: Now Ken Mehlman, are you worried, because I am. I think it's break the glass and sound the alarm time, that complacency among Republicans threatens the majorities they hold in Congress.

KM: I am. I worry not just about complacency. I worry about something I call learned helplessness sometimes. I think people either think they really can't do anything to make a difference, because they feel very safe. Or they think things are bad, they throw their hands up. That's not the right answer. John Boehner is a fantastic new leader in the House, and will do a great job as the majority leader, continuing the tradition of a great majority leader. We've got great leaders in the Senate, we've got the President. The stakes are enormous. We've got to remind people our nation is now at war. This isn't like even back before, when we had the Cold War, we had an established pattern of dealing with that challenge. We're now at the same moment we were in 1946, when the Iron Curtain came down. And the policies that were established then for a generation decided how Americans would deal with the threat of international Communism. The policies that are made right now, the results of the elections right now, will decide for a generation whether we take the battle to the enemy, whether we use every tool at our disposal to defeat the enemy, whether we make sure that things like Patriot Act and the surveillance of foreign terrorists continue, or whether those things stop, and we go back to a pre-9/11 mindset that says we can win this thing somehow with just law enforcement, and responding after the fact. So all of these issues are on the table now, and it is critically important that every one of your listeners be involved in these campaigns.

Of course, these issues are important but really don't answer the central question.

Why are Republicans complacent? That is the real question.

Many of us are feeling let down. We've held a dominant position in both chambers of Congress for a good portion of a decade and a half. We've had a Republican in the White House for a term and a half. But ask yourself, just how far has the conservative agenda been advanced in that time?

Sure. Republicans in Washington are dealing with the national security issues pretty well and the Global War on Terror must be the number one issue. We've also managed to get two very well qualified judges on the Supreme Court.

We got some tax cuts, but they need to be made permenant.

Social Security is STILL a disaster on the horizon.

Spending is out of control.

ANWR is still untapped.

There are STILL a number of judges STILL waiting to get an up-or-down vote.

We got two bridges to nowhere, though.

And milk subsidies...

...and digital converter boxes...

Grassroots Republicans have plenty to be complacent about.....