Nov 13, 2006 -- Calling the 2006 election “a good humbling experience to learn from,” US Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, told 200 Yeshiva University students Nov. 8 that the loss of Republican control of the House of Representatives will be a “chance for us to get back to the basics.” “We will have an opportunity to see what we need to do to get back to our beginnings,” Sen. Brownback said during a lunchtime talk at YU’s Wilf Campus, sponsored by Yeshiva University Republicans and the Yeshiva College Student Association. During his talk, titled “Faith and Values in the Public Square,” Sen. Brownback –– who is being eyed as a possible candidate for US President in 2008 –– analyzed the previous day’s election and gave students advice on how to make a difference in the world. He also took questions from the audience on a broad range of issues, including judicial nominations, Iran, religious values and politics, Islamic fundamentalism, and school vouchers. Sen. Brownback said he believed Republicans lost so many seats because of three issues: the war in Iraq, corruption scandals such as those dogging Rep. Mark Foley of Florida and Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, and the immigration issue. On Iraq, Sen. Brownback said that a turning point came with the blowing up of the Shiite Gold Dome, when the war stopped looking like a support mission and “started to look like a Sunni-Shiite fight with us in the middle catching bullets.” The failure of the GOP to come to a consensus on the immigration issue also turned voters off. “If you engage the country on a big topic, you had better get it done,” Sen. Brownback said. “We put big plans out there, but we weren’t able to resolve it.” Sen. Brownback served as a White House Fellow in the first Bush Administration and was the youngest Secretary of Agriculture in Kansas history. In 1994, when he was 38, he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1996, he was elected to the US Senate seat held by Bob Dole. Sen. Brownback encouraged students to take their education, knowledge and strong faith and use it to impact the world. “Everybody has values –– if you come forward into the public sphere you bring those values with you,” the senator said in response to a question about whether religious conceptions of morality in government are a violation of church and state. Sen. Brownback called for the separation of church and state to be a “wall” but not an eradication of religious values from government and urged students “to bring [their] values into the public square.” He also suggested the students expand their horizons and visit Africa to see firsthand the suffering there. “When we have so much, it is required that we help others,” the senator said, complimenting the students’ work to shed light on the genocide in Darfur, among other projects. Jonah Raskas, president of the Yeshiva College Student Association and a senior from New Rochelle, NY, interned with Sen. Brownback during the summer, and said the students were fortunate that Sen. Brownback had an opening in his schedule the day after the 2006 election. “Senator Brownback is truly a unique and special individual who not only is morally sound in an often corrupt world but he is one of the kindest men I have ever met. I wanted students to see a politician who believes in faith and isn't scared to s