For years, those of us closely involved in Republican politics have been watching our Washington-based politicians slowly squander their majority. Tuesday's electoral losses for the GOP were certainly not unexpected. The media and editorial pages all over the country have a fundamental misunderstanding of the reasons why the GOP lost 2006.

Democrats will claim a mandate, but they ran an issueless campaign, devoid of any answers or alternatives to Republican policies. They have no strategically sound answers for the war on terror or in Iraq.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the Democrat leaders in the Congress, spent a great deal of time hiding over the last several days of the campaign. Sen. John Kerry was certainly no help.

Support for Republicans spiked upward after Pelosi unveiled her vision for a Democrat majority — higher taxes, increased minimum wage and a cut-and-run policy in the Middle East. There was yet another spike in support for Republicans after Kerry's now famous insult of the education levels of our troops in Iraq.

How did Democrats compete?

So how does an issueless Democrat Party with foot-in-mouth figures for leaders actually compete in an election? Contrary to conventional thinking, the war in Iraq is only part of the GOP's problems. All war is rightfully perceived negatively by the public, and with 80% of news accounts about Iraq favoring a negative outlook, there is no magic in understanding the war's drag on the president and Congress.

An educated public understands that Democrats have no superior solution to the war on terror — evidenced by the anti-war Ned Lamont's crushing loss to Joe Lieberman in Connecticut.

The Republican base voter simply didn't show up Tuesday, recognizing several issues where Republicans have failed to lead.

With majorities in Congress, and the presidency, Republicans have run up unconscionable deficits, even in an environment of record increases in annual federal revenues. They have failed to question waste, fraud and abuse in government and continued to expand ineffective federal programs.

Republicans have become more egregious pork barrelers than the Democrats of the 1980s, using "earmarks" for district projects at a far higher level than the liberals ever did. The tax-rate reductions passed by the GOP in 2001 saved the economy and blunted the economic effect of 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But the failure of the Senate to extend those tax-rate reductions became another reason to question the value of having a GOP Senate majority. If they couldn't act on a simple issue like tax relief, why keep them around?

Terrorists attack the United States and flaws in our immigration system are revealed as a major contributing factor in breaches of national security. Yet five years later, we still don't have a comprehensive strategy to deal with the direct threat to our security posed by our porous borders. Instead, we have Republicans pandering to big business, and Democrats pandering to Hispanics.

It's no small wonder why voters are disgusted, longing for leaders to simply pursue the right policies instead of counting votes.

Energy independence is another issue where Republicans failed. The House passed comprehensive energy policies at least three times in the past five years, only to watch the Republican-controlled Senate do nothing. So, we continue to send our oil dollars to nations that harbor or sponsor terrorists, while our vast supplies of domestic energy go virtually untapped.

Failed on energy issues

As gas prices soared above $3 this summer, voters rightfully blamed our Washington leaders for failing to increase energy supplies. Energy prices are a supply-and-demand issue, and demand is always going to rise. What sense does it make to anyone but diehard leftists to leave our energy in the ground?

Finally, the public has become very aware of the problems facing Medicare and Social Security — by any measure both programs are bankrupt. The Medicare Part D bill, passed to provide a prescription drug benefit to senior citizens, only sends Medicare deeper into bankruptcy. Republicans in safe districts, without any risk of being defeated, have failed to propose any realistic solutions to dealing with the coming entitlement spending train wreck.

Yes, in the final days of the campaign, Republicans marginally closed the gap and cut their losses to historically comparable numbers. This trend has far more connection to mistrust of Democrats than Republican successes.

I am convinced that Republicans would be successful in every election cycle if they start playing offense. The GOP needs to regroup quickly, and plot a course for aggressive solutions to the nation's problems. If not, they risk losing their traditional base of support for generations to come.