This from Jonah Goldberg at NRO:

There’s a lot of wishful thinking out there that the Republicans are doomed. The voters don’t trust them, they’re spending money like Teresa Heinz at a French mall. Bush this, Bush that, Bush the other thing. But I think the truth is more depressing. I think the Republicans will run things for a generation. Sure, there might be some upsets, some shake-ups, a Democratic president here or there. But ultimately I think we’re still in the beginning phase of a Republican era. As countless commentators have noted before, Bill Clinton was liberalism’s Eisenhower. Ike confirmed the New Deal’s bipartisan status, Clinton confirmed the Reagan Revolution’s bipartisan status.

If you listened to the Democrats fight John Roberts this month, it’s impossible not to conclude the Democrats are a runt party and will remain one for a while. The gravitational pull of their base makes it all but impossible for them to attain escape velocity from Planet Permanent Minority. Senator Feinstein actually said she won’t vote for Roberts in no small part because she’s not sure what kind of father and husband he is. Does this woman know or care what an unbelievable SOB Oliver Wendell Holmes was? Joe Biden who by personal acclamation is the smartest man in his party, ultimately resorted to debating Roberts by flashing his teeth at the nominee like a semaphore signal. If you study the video of his meandering soliloquies you’ll discover that while he was ostensibly opining on the inadequacy of the “umpire” metaphor, he was in fact delivering a coded dental message “I CANNOT STOP TALKING. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WILL SOMEONE STOP ME?”

While I lack Goldberg’s surety – to me it rings of a Fukuyamaesce “End of History” proclamation, I must say that, until the Jackasses reign-in their most prominent spokespeople – the Cindy Sheehans, Al Sharptons, and Howard Deans – who seem to regularly jump the shark, or unless some third party, like the Libertarians, learn the mechanics of politics, we are condemned to one-party rule.