REPUBLICANS FACE THE PROSPECT of losing a substantial number of Senate and House seats today, but it didn't have to be that way. For sure, the war in Iraq was always going to be a drag on Republicans. And an election in the sixth year of a presidency is often perilous for the president's party, a pattern that's held true in year six of the Bush era.

But Republicans have made matters worse by abandoning the reform agenda that animated their capture of Congress in 1994 and helped George W. Bush win the White House in 2000 and keep it in 2004. With scarcely a fight, Republicans gave up on Social Security reform in 2005, immigration reform in 2006, and never really got started on tax reform. Bush also cast aside the overarching theme for his domestic policy--the Ownership Society--without an explanation.

The consequences have been dire. Republicans have little to boast about in Bush's second term except the strong economy--and it's largely the result of tax cuts enacted three years ago. When Democrats bring up Iraq or corruption, Republicans have no countervailing issues. The president has made a strong case against Democrats on national security and taxes. But voters have been unresponsive and it's easy to understand why. It's Bush himself who causes them to feel safe from lax security and tax hikes. Whatever happens in tomorrow's election, he'll be in the White House for two more years to protect them from Democratic excesses. But what if Republicans had followed the president's

Instead, they balked at Bush's modest reform proposal. House Speaker Dennis Hastert thought it too risky, though the president had trumpeted his idea, with impunity, in two national campaigns. Another Republican leader told Bush that House Republicans would line up behind him--but only after he'd drummed up a strong national majority in favor of entitlement reform. In truth, it already existed. Private accounts financed out of payroll taxes, while controversial, have long been popular. Left alone in the drive to fix Social Security, the president, disappointed and exhausted, finally gave up the fight.

For Republicans, 2006 was going to be the year they bravely took on America's immigration problem. Despite a division among Republicans on a solution, an ultimate agreement seemed quite possible. House Republicans would get beefed up security along the border with Mexico well beyond what Bush wished. In return, Bush and Senate Republicans would get what they wanted: additional security plus a program to bring foreign workers here temporarily and a plan for illegal immigrants in the U.S. to "earn" citizenship.

There were (and still are) many ways to reconcile the two positions. The simplest was to stagger the implementation of the three parts of immigration reform by requiring a secure border first, followed a few years later by the guest workers' program and citizenship scheme. Hispanic Americans and their influential lobbying organizations were willing to go along. And Democrats, faced with mass defections, would have been forced to accept the GOP compromise.