So goes the Nation.

I say, bunk and more bunk.

Partisan columnist E. J. Dionne, in his dreams, wants to “blue-wash” the Nation in the upcoming mid-Term elections. The basis for his wistful dreaminess?

New York:

What is happening to the Republican Party in New York state is the national GOP's nightmare. The once-thriving political organization of Nelson Rockefeller, Al D'Amato and George Pataki is a shambles.

And the way the Republican coalition has broken up should have national Republicans scurrying for a new game plan

Again, I say, dream on. New York as harbinger for the Nation is far less a Republican nightmare, than it is a Democrat fantasy.

There is no doubt in my mind that New York’s Republican Party is a shambles, bereft of effective leadership, and devoid of self-less Champions who would carry the banner, rally the troops, and stand firm against the creep of Trojan horse socialism.

“Why?” is surely a useful question, I wish some state Republicans were asking the question.

Here’s my take on an answer, and it says a lot more about leading Republicans in the state, than about the many scavenger Democrats scampering to overwhelm the field the GOP has left them to occupy.

George Pataki, number one.

Our Governor may be many things, and possess many fine qualities, but he’s lifted not even the most minor of digits to do anything to build his party for the past 6 years. Sure, he’s no Conservative, he presides over the most bloated of bureaucracies, and he managed to keep powerful unions moderately under fealty, at least to him and his personal objectives. Mario-right, He’s been more in league with the state’s leading Democrats, however, no friend of Upstate, and the Invisible Man on a range of issues of greatest concern to Republican voters. It’s as if 9/11 was the last thing he needed to do, outside of cultivating friends elsewhere, who can help him achieve his long term career goals.

Build a Party? New York’s blue, he needs friends in Iowa, New Hampshire, the West, and big-time down South. No sense wasting the time.

Joseph Bruno and whatever remains of Upstate GOP leadership, number two.

Much like George, it sometimes seems as if the Senate Majority leader sits sidesaddle with State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. That’s when he’s not out building monuments to himself.

Why did NY Republicans surrender the Governorship to the preordained Eliot Spitzer? For that matter, why was Hillary Clinton given a completely free pass back in 2000, and for sure, no opposition in 2006? Why such lousy candidates for office at all levels?

Dionne may eulogize the GOP of Al D’Amato, and well he might, for D’Amato gained the throne for George Pataki at the expense of any other accomplishment the GOP made have made in NY. No surprise, Al is my pick for number three.

The National GOP left New York to their own devices, and like a parent that knows the prodigal son is going to go raise havoc and party around no matter what Dad says, left them to their mess.

Sure, New York is Blue. That’s because most of the Red drained out of the state some time ago. Note that NY is rated 47 out of 50 in terms of business tax climate, that probably tells you most of what you need to know about how crimson-less the state is. (New Jersey, Ohio, and California round out the bottom of the list.)

To say that current GOP woes are at all reflective of GOP fortunes nationwide might give partisans like Dionne great encouragement, but to anyone else, it’s like Global Warming.

Each season’s weather will surely fluctuate, year to year. When it’s warmer than usual, everybody wants to say it’s Global Warming. When it turns cold again, everybody laughs it off. Just because it’s warm, doesn’t mean we all caused it to be. Just because it’s cold, doesn’t mean somehow we didn’t.

The Republican meltdown in New York has been going on for years, and surely in evidence during two Presidential and one midterm election that the GOPs gained big victories.

Whether or not the Democrats take one or both chamber of Congress in these midterm election, events won’t bear any causal relationship to the long, sad decline of the GOP in New York.