Posted on 12/20/2004 8:47:51 PM PST by MikeA
Rep. Mike Pence (news, bio, voting record), R-Ind., was beaming over a cup of Capitol bean soup in the House of Representatives dining room one recent afternoon.
"The election was a mandate for conservative leadership in Washington," declared the new chairman of the House Republican Study Committee. The conservative caucus has grown from 40 members in the late 1990s to about 100 in the new Congress - not including five conservative former House members who are moving to the Senate.
Exit polls indicate social conservatives voted in about the same proportion as in 2000. But Pence and others credit them with President Bush (news - web sites)'s margin of victory over Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) and say the election was a referendum on conservative values.
"It's a new day," Pence said, "and a new Congress."
For conservative Republicans, it's also a new chance to enact their agenda - whether it jibes with the president's or not. Sometimes they agree with Bush, as on the need to drill for oil in the Arctic and revive a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. But sometimes they don't, as in their call to repeal campaign-finance changes and limit the new Medicare prescription drug benefit to needy seniors. (Story: Conservatives to challenge Bush)
With the imperative to support Bush's re-election campaign over, conservatives are starting to follow their own agenda. They have:
• Nearly derailed moderate Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record)'s shot to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) after the Pennsylvanian said anti-abortion judges would have a tough time winning confirmation. Specter was forced to clarify his statement, promising to give nominees quick consideration.
• Quietly inserted a controversial rider in a $388 billion spending bill passed this month by Congress and signed by Bush that allows health insurance companies, hospitals and HMOs to refuse to provide, cover or refer patients for abortions. The measure is being challenged in court.
• Held up a bill to reshape the intelligence community despite strong White House support. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., cleared the way for passage and Bush's signature last week only after winning assurances that a new intelligence czar would not interfere with battlefield intelligence. Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., agreed to drop immigration provisions from the bill after House leaders vowed to take them up early next year.
Even so, 67 Republicans voted against the bill, a clue to the challenge GOP leaders will have holding their caucus together this year.
"Conservatives have been waiting for 25 years to have all the stars aligned," says Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, which favors less government. "We have very high expectations because we now feel that Republicans have all the levers of power."
Republicans kept control of the White House and increased their majorities in both houses of Congress in last month's elections. Whether they will be able to pull those levers as far right as conservatives hope remains unclear. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, whose redistricting effort in Texas helped increase the GOP edge by three to 232-202, has been instrumental in pushing the conservative cause. But his clout could be compromised in the next Congress by mounting ethics questions.
Even without DeLay's troubles, Republicans - masters of discipline in Bush's first term - may have difficulty herding their members. Many lawmakers in closely contested districts will be preoccupied with the 2006 elections and more willing to part ways with Bush.
In the Senate, the GOP picked up four seats for a 55-44 majority with one independent. Tom Daschle, the Senate Democratic leader Republicans dubbed an "obstructionist," was defeated by conservative John Thune in South Dakota. Thune and fellow right-leaning freshmen Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Richard Burr of North Carolina, David Vitter of Louisiana and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma served in the House under DeLay's tutelage.
Despite the Senate's more rightward tilt, the GOP still lacks the 60 votes needed to cut off debate and move legislation forward. Majority Leader Bill Frist has hinted he might change Senate rules to prevent Democrats from blocking Bush's judicial nominations, including those to the Supreme Court. But that option is seen as a last resort that could backfire against Republicans later.
Bush is banking on "political capital" from the election to push through one of the most ambitious legislative agendas since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.
The president "knows by spending it and achieving results, he'll gain more capital," said David Hobbs, the departing White House legislative affairs director. "There's never a better time than now, shortly after his election. He's come out of the chute on a wide range of fronts."
The president highlighted his agenda at an economic summit here last week. He'll have a year to implement his program before the 2006 election season begins. His top priorities: creating private accounts in Social Security (news - web sites), simplifying the tax code and reining in corporate and medical lawsuits.
All have been on conservative wish lists for years.
"The Republican Party will quickly lose our majority if we don't follow through on the promise of major structural reform," DeMint says. "Now we have the numbers to at least make an attempt."
Conservatives say they plan to pursue new, stalled and previously defeated initiatives, including:
•Abortion limits. Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., will reintroduce a bill that would require those who perform abortions after 20 weeks to tell mothers that their fetus feels pain and to offer it anesthesia. The Bush administration has not declared a position but argued during last year's successful effort to ban late-term or "partial birth" abortions that fetuses feel pain. "This was a very clear election cycle. ... The country has shifted. You've got a pro-life electorate," Brownback says.
•Gay marriage. Congress failed last year to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman. But since 11 states approved initiatives against gay marriage, conservatives say they have momentum. Deborah Pryce of Ohio, who chairs the House Republican Conference, predicts the amendment, which Bush supports, will be voted on again.
•Spending. Rep. Ernest Istook (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., will resubmit a long-shot balanced budget constitutional amendment that would oblige the government to spend no more than it takes in. The House passed the measure in 1997, but the Senate was one vote short at a time when it also had 55 Republicans. If approved by Congress, the amendment must be passed by three-fourths of the states to become law.
•Environment. Several new Republican senators favor oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (news - web sites). They could give Republicans the last few votes needed to pass the controversial provision as part of a larger energy bill stalled in the Senate.
•Clergy and politics. Rep. Walter Jones (news, bio, voting record), R-N.C., will reintroduce a bill that would make it legal for churches to participate in political campaigns without losing tax-exempt status. It's not clear whether Bush will weigh in on the issue.
What was P. J. O'Rourke's little zinger about that? Ah, here we go: "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
According to exit polling data from 2000 and 2004, that is not true. In 2000, the percentage of voters who identified themselves as members of the "Religious Right" came in at 14%. Bush received 80% of that vote. In 2004, the percentage of voters who identified themselves as members of the "Religious Right" came in at 23%. Bush garnered 78% of that vote.
I'd say the Religious Right and social conservatives in general, carried PresBush to reelection.
Control of the Borders ans enforce Immigraion Laws. Deport the illegal aliens.
Remove the Activist Judges that are legiglating from the Bench.
Put prayers back in schools!
Reverse the Secular Agenda!
Quit paying the ACLU with Taxpayers money!
Repeal the HATE CRIME laws and the Hate Crime LAWS That supress Freedom of Speech!
Open the Investigation against Bill Clinton
Get the UN out of the US and the US out of the UN!!
Is this a continuous feed editor?!!
Vitter and Thune, while Republican heroes, are fairly moderate, and quite poor on issues such as immigration which have distinguished the caucus from the leadership.
Burr, Coburn and DeMint should be awesome.
And let NPR fend for themselves like everybody else.
"National" Public Radio? National? Since when do we have "national" radio, leftist to the core.
We're still a minority in a Republican Congress. However, we've grown substantially in the last couple of years. I'd say we're on the right track.
We will need "Radio Free America" if Hildahbeast gets in office.
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