It's not so much that they've run out…

…of good ideas. It's that their ideas were bad all along. Robert Borsage wisely observes...

Bush's signature failures - the war in Iraq, Katrina, Enron and the corporate scandals, failed tax and trade policies, the attempt to privatize Social Security, the posturing around Schiavo and stem cells - can be traced back not simply to the conservative ideology and ideologues that sired them -- but to the core conservative doctrine that Reagan championed. The Gipper can't lead Republican candidates out of the wilderness because, to paraphrase him, his conservatism is not the solution to their problem; his conservatism is the problem.

American movement conservatism, as exemplified by the Republican Party for nearly half a century, is a hollow and fundamentally un-American political philosophy. The central problem isn't really George W. Bush's particular brand of personal ineptitude, but one of Republican governance itself.

Happily, our liberal system of constitutional government has thus far been hardy enough to withstand their assault, but it's past time for them to go.