Senate welcomes more '94 GOP revolution foot soldiers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Call them Newt's disciples. These hard-charging conservatives learned their political tactics in the House from former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the one-time backbencher-turned-Pied Piper who led the 1994 Republican revolution that swept Congress.

During the past decade, a handful of these conservatives moved to the Senate, determined to push it rightward and break hidebound rules that would inhibit their bare-knuckles House style. Come January, there will be more than a hardy few of them.

Elections from South Dakota to the Carolinas increased their numbers in the Senate and set the stage for a political and legislative tug of war. On one side are conservatives who interpreted the victories of Nov. 2 as validation of their views; on the other, the Senate, a sanctum of compromise and pragmatism.

"A couple of characteristics of the Senate will curb their House habits," said John Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in California. He mentioned the 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster, bipartisan coalitions that often produce legislation, and the demand on senators from a larger, more diverse population than a single House district.

"A broader range of political pressures will temper their impulses," said Pitney, who still expects the House veterans to see legislating "through the prism of partisan warfare."

After a bitter presidential election and harsh charges in congressional races, the numbers and changes in the Senate indicate plenty of dissent. Republicans will hold 55 seats and Democrats 44, with one Democratic-leaning independent.

Gone are many of the lawmakers with reputations for reaching across the aisle, some of the Southern Democratic moderates and Republican moderates from the West. In their place are GOP conservatives, such as Oklahoma's Tom Coburn, and more liberal Democrats, such as Illinois' Barack Obama.

Some 52 senators will be products of the House, including 30 Republicans. Of those GOP members, close to a dozen were in the House when Gingrich was working to reverse 40 years of Democratic rule or were elected shortly after the Republican tidal wave.

"We're now seeing the fruits of the polarization of the House," said Burdett Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas. "It predated the Senate. The natural progression is into the Senate."

One of those House veterans is Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who was elected to the Senate in 1994. Two months into his term, Santorum and some GOP senators tried to strip Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., of his chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee because of his opposition to a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.

The effort failed but set in motion Republican term limits on committee chairmanships.

Flash ahead to 2004. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is set to step down as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman due to term limits. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is in line to take his place. But the day after the Nov. 2 election, Specter angered conservatives when he said it would be tough for the Senate to confirm anti-abortion judges. The right has demanded that Specter be passed over for the post.

Santorum, a member of the leadership as the Republican Conference chairman, put out a general statement of support for Specter. Republicans will decide next week whether Specter gets the post.

"Santorum has been more co-opted by the system than have the others," said Paul Weyrich, a leading conservative. "I think when they get into leadership they drink a different kind of water."

But Weyrich argued that senators do not like being pressured by outside groups, and bypassing Specter would be seen as a dangerous precedent. "By golly, if these Christians can overthrow a chairmanship," said Weyrich, who expects Specter to become the committee chairman.

Conservatives emboldened by the election results, particularly in the Senate, will press for stricter restrictions on abortion and a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

At the center will be Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. A potential presidential candidate in 2008, he faces the demands of making the Senate run and keeping the Republican base content.

"You see someone like Frist or (former Majority Leader Trent) Lott bending to realities from a place farther right than their predecessor," Loomis said. "They've got to make it work. They drag it along in its strange way."

These darn Christian moralists, who do they think they are? Trying to protect the lives of the unborn and the sanctity of marriage. What's wrong with these people, don't they like lap dances, divorces and abortions like Hollywood? --sarcasm

"Senate welcomes more '94 GOP revolution foot soldiers"

Gosh, the bias of the AP continues to amaze me. And I'll bet the author of the article doesn't even realize that he is maligning the GOP and its newest Senators with his carefully selected words and the images they bring up. To wit:

* "GOP revolution foot soldiers"

* "hard-charging conservatives "

* "break hidebound rules that would inhibit their bare-knuckles House style"

* "On one side are conservatives who interpreted the victories of Nov. 2 as validation of their views; on the other, the Senate, a sanctum of compromise and pragmatism"

* "temper their impulses"

* "Gone are many of the lawmakers with reputations for reaching across the aisle"

You tell me -- how much respect does the author provide in his analysis? The new GOP Senators sound like Muslim fanatics in an army marching on Mecca.

Gosh, I really hate the media.

I have written about this elsewhere today, but this is part of the Dem and MSM strategy to paint the latest Republican victory as being out of the mainstream. First they point to the values votes as being by gay bashing Jesus freaks. Then they run story after story talking about the Republican party as being under control of right wing extremists. In order to do this, they drag two old villians out of retirement, namely, Jerry Falwell and Newt Gingrich. The latter is what this article seeks to do.

It is also part of Hillary's campaign to transform into a moderate. On the one hand, she will move, or make the appearance of moving, towards the center. On the other hand, her willing accomplices in the media will try to make the Republicans seem to be just right of Hitler.

I like this article. Mostly because it validates what I've thought about the GOP gaining majority status.

I wasn't Reagan, a former moderate Democrat who re-aligned the country. It was Newt Gingrich, taking up part of Perot's '92 campaign promises and the intensity of gun voters in the '94 election which hastened by at least a decade the complete re-alignment of the South to the GOP.

Prior to Newt, it was merely a smoldering cinder. His Contract with America fanned the flame and the gun voters, added to the pro-life voters, finished the job and gave us the House. And that paved the way for growing dominance in the Senate and Bush's two terms.

No matter what anyone here says about him, I say, "Thanks, Newt." He is the real author of the GOP's present success.

The lamestream media is annoying, that's for sure. But it's better to laugh at them then to hate them.

The facts about the Senate class of 2004:

Ken Salazar (D-CO): is mostly liberal, though not entirely.

Mel Martinez (R-FL): was once a trial lawyer, not known for attracting conservatives. Served as Orange County Commissioner, where he had a reputation as a consensus-seeker.

Barak Obama (D-IL): a very pleasant guy with a nice smile, but a far-left liberal. Probably the most ideological Senate freshman.

David Vitter (R-LA): Boyish-looking conservative was known as a good-government maverick in his home state, seeking term-limits and gift bans. In his home town, made his name as a dedicated opponent of David Duke.

Richard Burr (R-NC): a strong religious conservative with a self-contained personality who keeps a low profile. Anything but a podium-banger.

Tom Coburn (R-OK): the most conservative Senate freshman and willing to be combative. The article does describe him accurately, which Coburn will proudly admit.

Jim DeMint (R-SC): another strong, principled conservative, he is fairly mild-mannered and tries to avoid personal attacks.

John Thune (R-SD): is known for his friendliness and sunny disposition, and was well-liked by many House Democrats. If he has trouble making friends with Democrats in the Senate, it's because they resent him for defeating their leader, not any surliness on Thune's part.

Doesn't entirely match the tone of the article.

It is already past time to create a Conservative Party of the USA. If one existed Bush would be beholding to it for his re-election and would stop this amnesty foolishness. He might also think about reducing the federal budget. There are in fact, if not in name, four parties operating in the USA: The Democrats, The Progressives, The Republicans, and the Conservatives. It would just take a conclave of important Conservatives, say with Newt as leader, to change the whole picture of American politics.

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