This is a quote from Tom Cole, the new head of the National Republican Congressional Committee,

Cole has run the numbers, and he doesn't think the GOP was doomed by appropriating federal money for bridges to nowhere in Alaska. His diagnosis includes Iraq, corruption scandals and a general sense that Republicans "overreached" after taking over Washington. He's a conservative Republican from a conservative district, but he says that the United States is a "center-right country, not a right-wing country." He wants the GOP to woo swing voters, and he believes they can be coaxed back into the fold with better messaging, better marketing and better performance.

"Oh, I don't think the problem was spending," Cole said. "People who argue that we lost because we weren't true to our base, that's just wrong."

There is something about DC that just turns GOP brains to mush. It's almost like the moment that Republicans arrive inside of the Beltway, they're suddenly struck stupid.

Ronald Reagan won two massive landslides in large part because he railed against government waste and increasing the size of government. Newt Gingrich engineered a Republican Revolution in 1994 in part, again, based on reducing government spending. Even Bill Clinton declared that, "The era of big government is over." Granted, he didn't mean it, but still felt compelled to say it publicly.

Meanwhile, since the election of 2004, the base has been complaining incessantly about excessive spending and surprise, surprise, the GOP got hammered in 2006, partly because of that issue. This just is not rocket science. I mean how many times have you heard people complain about the "Bridge to Nowhere?" Didn't the Club for Growth actually manage to knock off some Republicans in primaries because of their spending?

Yet, the conclusion from Tom Cole, who is held up as some sort of political genius in this article, is that, "Oh, I don't think the problem was spending," Cole said. "People who argue that we lost because we weren't true to our base, that's just wrong."

No wonder the GOP keeps getting their lunch eaten by the Democrats when guys with this sort of mentality are running the show.