The Gang Of Seven 2.0
There is not much glory to being the political party out of power, but that does not mean it is without opportunities.
In fact, there is a little more room to act riskily when you aren’t running the joint.
The challenge for Washington’s remaining Republicans is to think of constructive, not obstructive, ways to help fashion a better plan on every issue facing the country.
One way, University of St. Louis professor Joel Goldstein says, is for GOP congressmen to think of ways to use the stimulus package to strengthen the role of state governments. “Or they might envision ways to make certain that the proposed spending package is not permanent,” he adds.
Another approach he suggests is to address some of Wall Street’s flagrant abuses that contributed to our economic crisis.
A bold approach by a minority party certainly worked in 1990, when a group of freshman House Republicans - the self-described “Gang of Seven”
- began taking on House banking issues and ethics reform.
GOP boldness did not defeat President Obama’s stimulus package, passed last week without a single House Republican vote. But it did send a message from the minority party: “We are not going to lie down.”
Some observers say the original “Gang of Seven” contributed to 1994’s GOP House takeover, and the gang deserves credit for raising topics, such as corruption and waste, that took hold in 1992 and 1994.
“They weren’t the critical factor in the rise of the GOP, though,” says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. “Bill Clinton was.”
So, can a new “Gang of Seven” arise? And if so, what can it do?
Taking on the ethics issues of the very powerful House Ways and Means chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., might be a good start. Rangel admitted last fall that he failed to pay thousands of dollars in real-estate taxes for rental income he earned on property he owns in the Dominican Republic.
Seems like low-hanging ethically-challenged fruit to pick off.
Today’s political context is different, however. The 1990 “Gang of Seven” were newly elected congressmen; they capitalized on their ability to associate congressional abuses with Democrats who had controlled the House for nearly 40 years.
“The Democrats have only just returned to power in the House in 2007 after 12 years of Republican control,” Goldstein says, adding that the GOP years didn’t exactly leave a good taste in Americans’ mouths.
As House Republicans look to be relevant in the Obama era, a new group of leaders must emerge to challenge the way things are done under one-party rule. They must force the changes that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised to deliver; they must focus on process, on mastering House operating rules.
They should pick fights with Speaker Pelosi, not President Obama.
An emerging leader for the gang is Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., probably the most trusted member of the GOP leadership and the one who looks out for GOP House members.
Some conservative “young guns” in the House who could work with Cantor on a “Gang of Seven, 2.0″:
* Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Former congressional staffer for his predecessor, Rep. Bill Thomas, and former minority leader in California’s state legislature. Aggressive, equipped with a non-stop motor, he’s established himself as a leader in the House.
* Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Smartest guy in the room on policy; cares about conservatism both as an intellectual and a political movement.
* Mike Pence (R-Ind.). Gifted communicator with a Reaganesque quality and a strong following in the evangelical and conservative communities.
He seems ready to take on the status quo every day.
* Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). An all-around talent - smart, very capable - she’s an incredibly hard worker who’s held a tough district through some difficult elections.
* Duncan Hunter - The Son (R-Calif.). A veteran who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, he is poised to take up his father’s mantle as an expert on national security issues.
* Tom Rooney (R-Fla.). Scion of the Pittsburgh Steelers family; a veteran who taught at West Point, and a young up-and-comer on national security.
These talented legislators blend newsness and experience, and they are the future of what the Republican Party should look like.
It’s going to be a while before Republicans find themselves in the Capitol’s majority suites again.
Yet if they begin with the small battles - not just exposing corruption but using House rules to make the minority voice heard; standing firm on not misspending the stimulus package and on cutting taxes to stimulate growth - they can recreate a healthy GOP brand.
 |
|
Sounds good to me. We have an opportunity to correct the course of our party. This was the positive side of McCain not winning. I damned sure hope we take advantage of it. I’m not sure if Steele’s victory is sign that we will.
I just now got it. Fight fire with fire.
Ever wonder why it is that when leftist slugs like Obambi talk partisanship what they really mean is drop your objections and follow the left. But the shoe is never on the other foot. When Republicans ask the same from the defeato-ratz they filibuster.
Fuck the Dhimoids. Time to resist and get on board some real change that we can believe in: No more Comrade Pelosi; no more Traitor Murtha. No more Alinski protegee’s; no more taxes; and no more socialism; no more pork barrel spending. No more free lunches.
Screw the demonrats…
We need to elect more conservative politicians.
Unfortunately it was the conservative and not the moderate Repubs who were voted out of office. Go figure.
What we really need to do is infiltrate the local and state governments first. That’s how the democrats got the power to control state and federal government. We’ve relied too long on only being the federal government and believing that people will just “see the light”. That’s not going to happen, unless we help people in their every day lives and in their homes.
Dan:
Why not both?
I’ve yet to see those explained properly. The generalization being offered by the ‘professor’ doesn’t cut it so I’ll offer one of my own… Soros needs to hang in Times Square. Don’t think it likely he and his accomplices could create an economic crisis in America? Study what he did to the British currency.
“They weren’t the critical factor in the rise of the GOP, though,†says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. “Bill Clinton was.â€
Elections have consequences. In the nineties we got Clinton and his hangers-on (Gore, Emanuel, Carville, etc., etc.), that we still deal with today, because of Ross Perot.
Perot doesn’t run and the Repubs hold the White House in the nineties and these Dhimmi trash are likely relegated to the trash bin of history where they belong. A FACT rarely if ever mentioned by distinguished talking heads and supposed professors of history like Sabato.
As for the Conservatives being voted out that JI mentions; Emanuel and Carville are masters of the con and the stealth race. They did it for Clinton and for Obama. That’s how Emanuel got his current plum job.
ALOT, if not most, of the Dhimmis that replaced ‘conservatives’ were run as conservatives. You saw signs and ads everywhere, especially the South, where it was never made known that the Democrat was a Democrat.
That’s why Nanzi is in such a hurry to plow this through. The jig is up when people start figuring out they were hoodwinked into believing they voted for a conservative Dhimmi that ain’t.
like the republican’s are going to grow a pair. did they have a pair when they were in power, actually they were a lot like the dems. i think the republicans are full of as much shit as the dems just different smell. what a worthless bunch in dc.
none of them give a shit about us. it is about their power and their money to hell with the rest of us. so what if they are bounced out of office. there are sweet gigs waiting for them. they are exempt from the problems they cause both figurative, financially and legally. they are above it all. when the people figure that out maybe things will change. but the change we got now is the same old shit different day in one way or the other. but the population isn’t taught history or economics so all of this sounds new and great when it is nothing more than a screw job for years gone by.
with all the bitching on my side i wouldn’t trade it for anything else. if we were in china, russia et al….everyone one us would have disappeared in the middle of the night. i am grateful i can vote and bitch about it all and not be looking over my shoulder. that could change though.
sorry rough last few weeks and getting worse since mom is in hospice now…so i am not very patient with chicken shit matters right now.