Here's a novel take on the election results that I couldn't disagree with more. And here's an alternative view: Burns lost because of Jack Abramoff. Chaffee lost because heavily Democratic R.I. loathes the GOP national leadership. Corruption has hollowed out the Ohio GOP, which, in turn, impacted the campaign of Mike DeWine - and that of Ken Blackwell for that matter. Sen. Allen didn't run much of an ideological campaign, except on immigration where he ran many ads against "amnesty" - a campaign tactic that also failed fellow Virginia GOPer Jerry Kilgore, who lost his gubernatorial election bid to Tim Kaine. Santorum didn't lose by 18 points because of the "Gang of 14" or the Senate's failure to rubber stamp the House immigration bill. In the House, the swirl of corruption cost a number of seats, as did immigration. Speaking of, today's Wall Street Journal notes that among Hispanics, "some 27 percent voted Republican - an 11-percentage-point drop from the prior mid-term election in 2002." Of course, hovering over all this - the ethical issues, the profligate spending (though, to his great credit, John Boehner strongly opposed his party's pork binge), and the immigration mess -- is the war in Iraq. One of the very few people to fully grasp the deteriorating situation, early on, was the senator from Arizona. The bottom line: to recapture our majority and keep the White House in 2008, Republicans should assess the election results based on reality, not delusions.