More on the Election Results

“The 2004 election results tell the tale of two Republican parties,” wrote John Hood in a commentary published in The Carolinian newspaper. Hood described the impressive gains at the national level (White House, Senate, House, governors, and state legislatures) and the lackluster results down the ballot in North Carolina. “Democrats won almost every competitive district and picked off Republicans even in territory normally friendly to the GOP. It was, in short, a debacle,” he wrote. Hood sourced the defeat to poor candidate recruitment, unfavorable new legislative districts, and inadequate fundraising beyond the Bush and Burr races. Tuesday’s installment of Hood’s Daily Journal made such a compelling observation about President Bush’s second-term cabinet that it was featured on the Heritage Foundation’s online weblog, “The Insider.” Under the headline of “Announcing No One” Heritage readers could link to the column, that read in part as follows: “Of course, I’d like to see most of these jobs – Commerce, Agriculture, Energy, and Education – downsized into lower-level posts, their free-standing departments disbanded. Indeed, I can’t think of a reason why we should even bother to fill the first two posts. Just abolish the departments altogether. As for Energy and Education, I’d move the truly critical functions of the former into Defense, Interior, or the EPA and eliminate all but the research and accountability functions of the latter.” As Heritage noted, that would indeed save money.