John Podesta, founder of the Center for American Progress and former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, called the midterms “the end of the grand conservative experiment.”

Delusion on the left.

“There were no conservative grass-roots group saying, ‘Invade Iraq,’ ” Mr. Norquist said. “If Bush changed the policy, you’d have four neocons whine and the rest of the movement would be fine.”

Delusion on the right.

Apparently the big K was insufficiently shocking.

The pundit class must have secretly declared it a political third rail. There is too much blame to go around.

Bush's story is "trust us." We'll protect you from terrorists. You don't need to worry about laws and checks and balances and international opinions. We're the good guys. Make us powerful and we'll take care of it. Katrina broke that spell. People saw them clearly being incompetent and spinning it, and the trust went away.

But, if you were going to avoid Katrina you'd have had to start working on the new levy back in Clinton's time, or even earlier.

RE: For Conservatives, It’s Back to Basics