The Virginia House of Delegates’ Democratic and Republican caucuses each elected their leadership for the 2010 General Assembly session during the weekend. The Republican caucus, strengthened after picking up at least five seats in the House this month, re-elected Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford. They also voted to keep Del. H. Morgan Griffith of Salem as majority leader, Del. Samuel A. Nixon Jr. of Chesterfield County as caucus chair and Del. M. Kirkland Cox of Colonial Heights as majority whip. The party posts were chosen by acclamation, but the full House membership will vote on Howell’s post when the General Assembly meets in January in Richmond.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Bob McDonnell’s comfortable win in the race for governor of Virginia—not because it necessarily portends a GOP sweep in the 2010 midterms, but because it serves as a model for conservative and Republican victories in battleground states across the country. McDonnell’s election last night—and his impressive coattails—are the product of personality and philosophy. McDonnell triumphed, in a state that Barack Obama carried by 6 percentage points, by running as an unabashed conservative—but never an angry conservative.

The only Republican who supported advancing the Senate Finance Committee’s version of health care reform says she believes that’s what constituents expected from her.

American voters have been demonstrating a lack of confidence in both parties lately. George W. Bush nearly destroyed the Republican Party, but Barack Obama is giving it a chance at resurrection. Karl Rove dreamed that he and Bush, like strategist Mark Hanna and President William McKinley in 1896, would create a generation of Republican dominance. Instead, he delivered both Congress and the presidency to the Democrats.

South Florida Republicans held a weekly meeting at a gun range, shooting at targets including cut-outs of a Muslim holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

As the health care debate rages on, both sides have become increasingly dramatic in their denunciations of the opposition. The left—horrified that it may have blown the perfect opportunity for stealth nationalization of American health care—has slipped into shrill ad hominem attacks, with prominent pundits such as Paul Krugman equating opponents of a public plan to fringe “birthers” who question the authenticity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate. The right, on the other hand, has sometimes stumbled into brazen hypocrisy while trying to stop what can reasonably be described as a government power grab. Why must conservatives exaggerate when they have so much right reason on their side?

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney says President Barack Obama is struggling in efforts to get a health care overhaul bill because he has been too deferential to the liberal wing of his party.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has put off its vote on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for one week after Republicans asked for a delay.

Political commentators have often observed that our two political parties fulfill different parental roles. Strong on security and national defense, the Republican Party is seen as the Daddy Party. Like many fathers, the Republicans have tended to stress fiscal restraint and individual responsibility. When the country is threatened by external forces or by those who would do us mischief, Americans often gravitate toward Republican leadership.

Just two weeks after taking the first steps toward a 2012 presidential bid, rising conservative star is admitting to an extramarital affair last year with a campaign aide.

While surfing the radio dial recently, we happened upon a rant (we took our pick among about 30 rants, to be precise). The host railed against so-called moderate Republicans, whom he basically ran out of the party with good riddance. He explained that Ronald Reagan never compromised his conservative principles. Oh? Reagan certainly knew how to compromise, and he recognized that political compromises could promote philosophical principles. Throughout his career, he also did things that would draw censure from today’s purists. As governor of California, he raised taxes and signed legislation to institute the withholding of state income taxes, which he had promised never to do. He also signed a bill that legalized abortion before Roe v. Wade.

The Republican congressional leadership, including Virginia’s Rep. Eric Cantor, has created a forum for finding and promoting principled, pragmatic policies to address America’s many challenges. The National Council for a New America will focus on dialogue and solutions. The press release announcing its formation was light on ideology and stressed that it welcomes those who do not call themselves Republicans.

For many years conservatives dismissed Sen. Arlen Specter as a “rino”—a Republican in name only. This week the Pennsylvanian dropped the R. Specter’s crossing of the aisle moves Democrats closer to a filibuster-proof majority. Although the senator says he will continue to go his own way, his defection will complicate efforts to thwart the Obama administration’s statist agenda. Do not be surprised if partisan inertia brought out the worst.

Frank Atkinson, a longtime participant in Republican politics at the highest levels, offered his analysis of the 2009 Virginia gubernatorial race in last Sunday’s Commentary section. His conclusions, as usual, are thoughtful, but don’t withstand close scrutiny.

Don’t real leaders stand up and do the right thing in the face of pressure, no matter where that pressure comes from (in this case from President Obama’s Treasury Department)? This is the same Dodd who, while head of the Senate Banking Committee, received below-market rates for mortgages from Countrywide Finance and now faces a Senate ethics investigation. Don’t real leaders take the moral high road, particularly when no one is looking?