Repubs: Power or Principle?

I missed this great editorial from the WSJ yesterday, which really gets to the heart of what has got me depressed about the GOP of late. The Dems seem to think now (given their recent actions towards DeLay) that it was the ethics problems of Rosty and Wright that swept Repubs to power, when in fact it was really the new ideas that Repubs were espousing. However, Repubs seem to be more interested now in just holding power:

The path back to public approval, and re-election next year, is to return to their principles ... It's not as if the agenda that Republicans ran on in 2004, or for that matter 1994, has been fulfilled. The question is whether Republicans still believe in that agenda, or whether their main ambition now is simply to stay in power. If a year from now voters continue to believe the answer is the latter, no amount of money or muscle will save Republicans at the polls.

My depressions stems from, for the lack of a better comparison, what I see as the conflict between the Fascists and the Commies during the '30s - two groups that stand for basically the same thing but are merely jockeying for power. It's not a perfect comparison because the GOP does still have core principles that are diametrically opposed to the Dems, but they certainly haven't been acting according to those principles. If it weren't for the Democrats terrible stance on the GWOT and interest in legislating power thru the judiciary (I give Bush much credit for the Roberts nomination, and he'll go up many points if he nominates a Luttig or McConnel or Brown), I'd probably withdraw from politics altogether.