In Robert Novak's latest column, he actually cites a few clarion truths:

"The Republican message machine is a skeleton of its former self," [Frank] Luntz told me. "These people have no idea how the American people react to them."
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Republican pollster Bill McInturff believes his party "underestimates" the 2006 outcome and thinks the Republican outlook is as dangerous as it has been "at any time since Watergate."

But then he predictably also offers up a few whoppers:

While truth-telling is celebrated by Republican reformers who include Presidential front-runner John McCain, it is a decidedly minority view in the GOP.
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[Rep. Mike] Pence said: "The greatest scandal in Washington, D.C., is runaway federal spending."

As for the first, there was a time when McCain mustered the temerity to speak the truth -- sadly those days are long gone. The Straight Talk Express has clearly gone off the rails and crashed into a ravine that looks much like the current problem-riddled GOP. The John McCain we once knew is no more.

As for the Pence quote, he's simply wrong. Yes, wasteful spending has been out of control while under the control of the GOP, but it's not the #1 scandal in DC. The #1 scandal has been scandal. Unethical behavior, distorting facts, fabricating intel, lying to the public, being bought off by shady operatives and special interests, doctoring legislation, late-night deals, K-Street penned bills, covert programs -- the list goes on and on. DC needs a thorough, and perhaps painful, enema flush. It started with this last election.

But what's most unsettling is to observe Novak posturing as a reformer, pointing the finger at a party gone bad when for years he played an active and complicit role in much of what has been rotten with the party.

Apparently, Dick Cheney is not the only one with no shame and who suffers from acute delusion.