Republican malaise

townhall.com ^ | 3-4-04 | Robert Novak

[Fishface]

Republican malaise Robert Novak (back to web version) | Send March 4, 2004

WASHINGTON -- At 1 p.m. on Feb. 25, some 15 prominent Republicans invited to be surrogates in the coming presidential campaign gathered at Bush-Cheney headquarters in suburban Northern Virginia for a private briefing. Less than two hours earlier that day, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan detonated a political bombshell. To judge from the bland and uninformative briefing, nobody on the president's campaign team heard the explosion.

Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, a Washington lawyer-lobbyist who last year resigned as figurehead chairman of the Republican National Committee to become figurehead chairman of Bush-Cheney '04, led the precisely orchestrated, one-hour briefing. He did not mention that Greenspan had just testified to Congress advocating reduced Social Security benefits. Racicot might be excused for being silent and unaware of the central banker's latest political mischief, since it also escaped the attention that morning of key Bush policymakers.

The invited advocates were handed a thick batch of talking points to ingest by the campaign's appropriately named chief of surrogates, Julie Cram. Nowhere in the handout did the forbidden words "Social Security" appear. "The president's opponents are against personal retirement accounts" is the closest the briefing material came to the dreaded subject. Many prospective surrogates left campaign headquarters profoundly depressed by the mediocre briefing and the material given them.

This fits the deepening malaise among Republicans in the capital. They are neither surprised nor terribly worried by polls that temporarily show George W. Bush trailing John Kerry. What worries the GOP faithful is the absence of firm leadership in their party either at the White House or on Capitol Hill.

The lack of a ready response to Greenspan, while Democrats quickly turned his comments into an indictment of President Bush's tax cuts, was not an isolated failing. Today, Republicans on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue seem to be going in opposite directions.

-- Disagreement between congressional Republicans and Bush over the size of the highway bill reflects mutual recriminations over runaway federal spending in general. While the president's aides are angered by the lawmakers' addiction to concrete, conservative lawmakers are furious that Bush's budget has preserved and actually increased federal funding for the arts.

-- Bush's call to make his tax cuts permanent and to repeal the estate tax for all time leaves Republicans in Congress perplexed about how they will be able to write a budget without a massive increase in the huge deficit that never will command a majority vote.

-- House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and his allies are bitter that they received no backing from the president and administration in their efforts to keep the independent 9-11 investigation from extending into the campaign season.

-- The president came out for a constitutional amendment to bar gay marriage without consulting congressional Republican leaders, which helps explain the unenthusiastic reception from his own party on Capitol Hill.

-- Congressional Republicans still have not recovered from the shock of the President's Economic Report extolling the outsourcing of industrial jobs -- good economics perhaps, bad politics definitely.

The disaffection is such that over the last two weeks, normally loyal Republicans -- actually including more than a few members of Congress -- are privately talking about political merits in the election of Sen. Kerry. Their reasoning goes like this: There is no way Democrats can win the House or Senate even if Bush loses. If Bush is re-elected, Democrats are likely to win both the House and Senate in a 2006 midterm rebound. If Kerry wins, Republicans will be able to bounce back with congressional gains in 2006.

To voice such heretical thoughts suggests that Republicans on Capitol Hill are more interested in maintaining the fruits of majority status first won in 1994 rather than in governing the country. A few thoughtful GOP lawmakers ponder the record of the first time in 40 years that the party has controlled both the executive and legislative branches, and conclude that record is deeply disappointing.

But incipient heresy also reflects shortcomings of the Bush political operation. Its emphasis has been on fund-raising and organization, with deficiencies in communicating and leadership. The president is in political trouble, and his disaffected supporters who should be backing him aggressively provide the evidence.

[Buck72]

That's been my position for a while now. If Kerry wins and the Republicans keep Congress we'll have gridlock for four years.

Having a "compassionate conservative" like Bush in the Whitehouse is giving political cover to all the RINOs in Congress. They can vote for all sorts of spending and Bush takes the heat for signing it. If Bush gets a second term I predict he'll declare some sort of amnesty and in general be even more liberal than he has been already.

[King Black Robe]

Novak is more conservative than liberal -- by a long shot. He was burned over the war issue. There was a lot of bridge burning going on, especially by the so-called neo-cons. Burnt bridges have a way of coming back to haunt you. Hopefully this painful lesson will be learned and not repeated by our side. I like to see such cannibalism on the left, not the right.

[Fishface]

I was just kidding, but I hate writing "HA HA" or "Just Kidding".

I really do appreciate the info.

[King Black Robe]

I've been wondering about McLaughlin. What's turned him into a lefty?

[KantianBurke]

"What worries the GOP faithful is the absence of firm leadership in their party either at the White House or on Capitol Hill."

Obscene pandering, poll tested Rove approved programs ONLY and no such thing as principles will do that to a party.

[anniegetyourgun]

"Its emphasis has been on fund-raising and organization, with deficiencies in communicating and leadership."

This statement alone indicates that Novak is losing his grip. He must have been taken off the routing slip.

[Diogenesis]

Nonsense. Novak got it from Palme's braggart husband, another halfwit working for Kerry.
Novak then betrayed the USA when he published the name after
being told not to by two people.

[concerned about politics]

This fits the deepening malaise among Republicans in the capital. They are neither surprised nor terribly worried by polls that temporarily show George W. Bush trailing John Kerry.

Hmmmm. Only the obviously liberal polls show Kerry ahead of Bush. All the other polls have Bush ahead.

Bias here? Yep.

Bush is dong great, and the Republicans know it.
This author is trying to manufacture a crises so he'll have something to write about. There is no "crises."

[COUNTrecount]

"Novak: Some Republicans on Hill want Kerry"

How many Republicans can be on Hill at once, and after being on her, do her charms turn them to same gender pile on ?

[KellyAdmirer]

Let's accept what Novak says, for the moment. The reality is that there is nothing going on here but some weak Bush poll numbers. Believe me, that is all that matters here. If the poll numbers go up and stay up, there won't be any talk of "malaise" and all the Republicans will be happy as clams. This talk about mid-term elections is simply looking for a silver lining, much like some looking on a Kerry win as a final and permanent avoidance of Hillary as President.

[Howlin]

Novak has big problems with that Joe Wilson story. I heard him myself say that he WOULD tell the FBI who his source was if they asked him; so far, it doesn't look like he's cooperating.

You're dreaming if you think OUR SIDE will ever learn ANY lessons.

[King Black Robe]

Novak isn't losing his grip. Not at all. He just learned in the past couple of years how fair-weathered his "friends" were. It's a tough pill to swallow.

[DakotaGator]

This is the usual "Republicans have been whipped so long and hard they still don't realize they're the majority party" whining. Everything Novak mentioned is only important to losers. Republicans are now winners.

Don't sweat this small stuff. Just get on with the important business of kicking Democrat butt and running the country properly.

[King Black Robe]

True, but that hasn't been the man's only issue.

[sinkspur]

Publishing the name betrayed nobody.

Plame was widely known in Washington as an employee of the CIA!

IOW, she was hiding in plain sight.

[AntiGuv]

What do I think about this? I've been pondering a lot for some while now the concept that total gridlock is preferable to misguided policies. This has crossed my mind as well:

Their reasoning goes like this: There is no way Democrats can win the House or Senate even if Bush loses. If Bush is re-elected, Democrats are likely to win both the House and Senate in a 2006 midterm rebound. If Kerry wins, Republicans will be able to bounce back with congressional gains in 2006.

So, it hardly surprises me that some of the congress critters are thinking about that too. Otherwise, I've said several times recently that events such as the FMA announcement have been amongst the most poorly organized political maneuvers that I've ever seen.

[Phlap]

The last time Bob Novak was right Nixon was in his first term.

[Fishface]

Whether Novak is a true conservative or not is not an issue with me. I trust that he has been around our weak kneed Republican congressman and that he has in fact heard these grumblings.

I am just not sure how it will ultimately impact Bush's re-election. After all, where have the Republicans in congress been for the past year? Their reign has been disappointing or even worse irrelevannt.

[Ramcat]

There are no merits to a Kerry win and any Republican who thinks there are is either foolish or too smart by half.

Briefly after WWII the Republicans held 85 seats in the house. The Democrats controlled congress for the better part of forty years.

The Republicans can't deal with success.
This is the Golden Age of the Republican party.
Republicans need to extend the run of victories not look to already broken down historical incidents.

Once the Republicans loose or give up momentum, it will be decades or longer before they have a pro-life, pro gun, tax cutting, voucher favoring, straight talking, American loving president and control both houses of congress.

Fight the culture war now if that's what's necessary. Take on Hillary now if that's what's necessary. There is no better time than now.