This has been a pretty good month for the GOP and President Bush.

The top Al-Qaeda terrorist in Iraq, Zarqawi, has been killed. Iraq has had free elections and successfully formed a government. And, lo and behold, it has been announced that we have found over 500 WMD in Iraq. Among those found were hundreds of shells filled with Sarin gas and mustard gas. And we, the coalition forces, are not the only ones looking for the WMD's; the terrorists are looking for them just as diligently as our forces.

It seems President Bush did tell the truth. It is now more important than ever that our forces in Iraq are looking for and finding WMD's. The good news for the GOP does not stop there. It would appear the real party of corruption seems to be the Democratic Party. Yes, ONE GOP Representative was caught breaking the law, accepting brides for votes. Republicans in Congress demanded his resignation, which he did, and the voters of his District elected a new, Republican Representative.

Conversely, corruption seems to be the norm for Democrats in Congress. One Democratic Representative, William Jefferson, from Louisiana, was caught on tape taking bribes. After he denied it, the FBI found $90,000 hidden in his freezer. Rep. Jefferson refuses to resign and the Democratic Caucus had to actually hold formal discussions to decide whether or not he should be held accountable.

Yet another Democratic Representative, Alan Mollahan of West Virginia, seems to have made an entire cottage industry of accepting bribes in exchange for millions of dollars of Federal Grants to his friends. Like his friend from Louisiana, Rep. Mollahan refuses to resign and his colleagues in the Democratic Party are reluctant to punish him.

So while election hopes in the Fall seemed pretty bleak for the GOP one short month ago, things seem to be looking up now. The USA has had striking successes in the war on terror; Iraq has a new freely elected government; it would appear (no surprise here) that the President told the truth about WMDs in Iraq and our forces are currently recovering them; and the Democratic Party, once so happy to point fingers, now seems to be self destructing under its own Culture of Corruption.

Here in Virginia the GOP has finally passed a budget and they did it without a tax increase. Although Governor Kaine (D) and our Senator, Russ Potts, had been demanding another round of dramatic tax increases only one year after the largest tax increase in Virginia history, our Republicans in the House of Delegates worked together to produce a budget without a single tax increase and a $567 million increase in transportation funding. As always, the Demo-crats and Rep. Potts said the only way to solve our problems was yet another tax hike.

For Democrats and Potts it doesn't seem taxes can ever be high enough. Thankfully, the Republicans in the General Assembly like Delegate Joe May and Delegate Bob Marshall have been successful in passing a budget WITHOUT tax increases and WITH large increases in transportation funding for Northern Virginia.