Editorial: Last laugh is on Republicans

Saturday, March 11, 2006 | 7:28 a.m.

The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ken Mehlman, may have thought he would get a laugh when he used this line Friday in a speech to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference: "Not only can the Democrats not settle on an agenda, they can't even agree on a slogan." But the laugh, albeit a cynical one, is actually on Mehlman and his party.

Midterm elections, coming up in November, are mostly about the party in power. They are an opportunity for the voters to express their views about the controlling party's performance. And their views are becoming well known already.

The head of the Republican Party, President Bush, achieved just a 37 percent approval rating this week in a poll conducted jointly by the Associated Press and the international polling firm Ipsos. The poll also showed that only 31 percent of the nation's voters approve the performance by the Republican-led Congress. And 70 percent of those polled said they thought the nation was on the wrong track.

It seems to us that the Republican Party's chairman has a lot more to worry about than whether the Democrats have published a platform or come up with a slogan. In fact, the Democrats have articulated what they stand for numerous times. A Democratic spokesman named a few standard bearers this week in an interview with Las Vegas Sun Washington reporter Benjamin Grove - strong national security, reformed health care, better schools, a smarter energy plan and more retirement security.

And we would add stronger congressional ethics rules, better management of the environment, closer relations with our international allies, greater protection of civil liberties, more openness in government, a higher minimum wage, sufficient taxes to support our troops and infrastructure and to protect future generations from mountains of debt, efficiency in emergency responses, wiser federal appointments to key positions and a plan for nuclear waste that does not include Yucca Mountain. And that's just for starters.

Republicans must answer for the state of affairs in Iraq. They must explain the collapse of ethics among their ranks in regard to the lobbying scandal that is still swirling. They must explain why Social Security reform crumbled under their watch and why Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff had to resign. They must account for a president who insists that the United Arab Emirates is right for our ports. They have to face seniors and tell them why the president wants to cut Medicare and why the prescription drug bill is a confusing mess. They will face angry questions about Hurricane Katrina and why the national debt limit is being raised.

No wonder they'd rather hit the Democrats on the all-important slogan issue.