Chafee lost to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse in a race seen as a referendum on President Bush and the GOP. On Thursday, he was asked whether he would stick with the Republican Party or become an independent or Democrat.Emphasis added.
Add the Chaffee loss in a "race seen as a referendum" on a guy Chaffee didn't vote for or a party he never supported to the Lieberman defeat of anti-war and nutroots darling Little Neddie Lamont and then start looking at who managed to survive, you will find that conservatives didn't lose...
Democrats had to put up stealth candidates and "conservative" Democrats in order to regain power...the way for Republicans to return to the majority is by committing themselves to conservitive principles and then holding these new Democrats to their so-called conservative platforms... If these Democrats fall to the far left, and there is no reason to think they will hold their convictions when the far left have hijacked the national party, they will ultimately lose again...
Liberals may think they have won a great victory, but Democrats didn't win based on "progressive" ideas...they won on conservative ideology. Let's see how long that lasts......
