THE GOP: STILL KICKING. I was pretty tough on Broder last week, so let me milk this rare moment of agreement for all it's worth: The GOP ain't dead. The papers are having fun running through Republican recriminations and documenting their low spirits, but we've seen this before, on the Democratic side, about a year before they recaptured both House of Congress. In June of 2005, for instance, the AP reported "Democrats in disarray as Bush basks in glow of Iraq trip." "Republicans," the article said, "basked in the afterglow of the president's dramatic lightning visit Tuesday to meet with Iraq's new Prime Minister Nuri Maliki...Bush's trip Tuesday followed last week's successes in Iraq, with the formation of the country's new unity government and the killing of Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi....But Democrats -- who have disagreed about the war since the invasion more than three years ago -- continued to be riven by internal dissent, particularly on the critical question of an exit strategy from Iraq." A year-and-a-half later, Iraq was an albatross, Democrats had handed the GOP a historic electoral whupping without losing a single seat, and the GOP was, you guessed it, in disarray. The right's got their problems right now, to be sure, but they've also a collection of candidates with the potential to be very strong general election contenders (even as they look likely to struggle through the primaries), the normal advantages of money and megaphone, and a whole lot of time. --Ezra Klein
