GOP loses and still wins.

I missed this piece in the NY Times (Select) today by Rammesh Ponnuru before my post below. Would've come in handy.

Now the Democrats are poised to take back the House. If that happens, however, conservatives will find several silver linings in the outcome.

Several silver linings! Oh, it gets much, much better.

A straight loss [of the House]...would make the Republicans hungrier and sharpen their wits. Freed from the obligation of cobbling together thin majorities for watered-down legislation, Republicans would be able to stand for something attractive.

So that's what's been the matter with the imploding GOP: they're incapable of "standing for something attractive" because they've won four straight elections. In other words, they're about to get bounced out of the House, not because they're policies have been exposed as unworkable shams and their governance really sucks and Americans are fed up with their corruption, but because they have a PR problem. What a piece of work.

The effects of victory on the Democrats may also be helpful to Republicans. Powerlessness has stoked Democrats’ rage.

I'm sure that a Democratic takeover of the House will be really helpful to George W. Bush and Karl Rove. That must be why they're campaigning so hard to maintain control of it. And yeah, rage has really kept the GOP down for the past 20 years (see Coulter, Ann; Limbaugh, Rush; Savage, Michael; Hannity, Sean; Gingrich, Newt).

Finally...

Winning in 2006 will make it harder for Democrats to address their long-term structural problems...If they win because of high gas prices, bad war news and conservative discontent now, they will be less likely to adopt new approaches to national security and social issues. That, too, will help Republicans in 2008.

Everyone clear? Even when the Democrats win, they lose.