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Can the Republicans Recapture the Spirit of '94?
Time Magazine ^ | 11/9/06 | Perry Bacon Jr.

Posted on 11/09/2006 9:58:04 AM PST by meg88

After taking a drubbing in this week's congressional elections, the GOP has a plan: rediscovering the Spirit of 1994, the year when the Republicans pulled off their own historic retaking of Congress.

With House Speaker Dennis Hastert deciding to leave his post after the party's defeat, a fierce campaign is already underway for top slots in the House GOP leadership for next year.

Nearly every member vying for party power in the new Congress is offering the same description of what ails Republicans and how it can be remedied.

It goes something like this: "After 1994, we were a majority committed to balanced federal budgets, entitlement reform and advancing the principles of limited government.

In recent years, our majority voted to expand the federal government's role in education, entitlements and pursued spending policies that created record deficits and national debt."

Those are the words of Mike Pence, the Indiana congressman who heads a group of the most conservative GOP members, called the Republican Study Group, and is running to be the top Republican leader in the House.

But John Boehner, the Ohio rep and current number two under Hastert who is running against Pence for that post, says he's the man to help Republicans restore the principles they embraced in 1994, since he was one of the authors of the original Contract with America.

Joe Barton, a Texas member who currently is chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, is also considering the top job.

Meanwhile John Shadegg, the Arizona congressman who wants the No. 2 job, Minority Whip, is playing up his reform credentials, noting he was elected in the famous freshman class of 1994 that won back the House for Republicans.

The closed-door leadership elections, scheduled for next Friday, will give a clue as to how badly the GOP thinks it needs to reform itself.

So much of the spending many House conservatives hated, such as the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill that President Bush pushed them to approve, happened before Boehner was in the leadership.

And Boehner is famous for having never asked for any wasteful pork-barrel projects for his own district, a stance many fiscal conservatives like.

Missouri congressman Roy Blunt, who will face Shadegg in the race for Minority Whip, will have a more difficult task running a campaign as a change agent, since he's been in the House leadership for several years; in fact he lost the race for majority whip to Boehner earlier this year primarily because he was viewed as a member of the old guard.

Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, another member of the current GOP leadership, is running for conference chairman and will face Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn and Florida's Adam Putnam.

A win by Pence, 47, for the top job would suggest a dramatic shift for House Republicans. While he would seek to move the GOP back to the roots of the 1994 movement, he actually comes from a new generation of House Republicans, elected since 2000, who have never served in the minority.

And the former conservative talk show host, who calls himself as "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order," is closer to the conservative Christians who play a big role in GOP politics than most of the current leadership.

At the same time, he's been willing to look for compromises on some key issues, attempting earlier this year to fashion an immigration bill that would create a work visa program for illegal immigrants, which many conservatives thought didn't constitute "amnesty," the label they tagged to the Senate Republicans guest worker bill.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 11/09/2006 9:58:07 AM PST by meg88
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To: meg88

Why try to re-capture a 12 yo spirit? Why not try to be original and just start out on a new day?


2 posted on 11/09/2006 10:00:06 AM PST by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: meg88

Though the GOP needs to remember their history .. they also need to look at the future

Otherwise they are just stuck


3 posted on 11/09/2006 10:02:04 AM PST by Mo1 (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 2 heart beats away from the Presidency)
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To: meg88
But John Boehner, the Ohio rep and current number two under Hastert who is running against Pence for that post, says he's the man to help Republicans restore the principles they embraced in 1994, since he was one of the authors of the original Contract with America.

Sorry Boehner, you're part of the wallpaper in D.C. and part of why we lost on Tuesday. Whatever you did in 1994 did nothing for us in 2006. You certainly didn't bring any of that 1994 spirit into your time as majority leader so why should I think you will do so moving forward? Time for new blood. You're out, Mike Pence in.

4 posted on 11/09/2006 10:02:23 AM PST by MikeA (Where's the media to call the elections a "temper tantrum" by America like they did in 1994?)
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To: meg88
we were a majority committed to balanced federal budgets, entitlement reform and advancing the principles of limited government.
5 posted on 11/09/2006 10:02:26 AM PST by Enosh
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To: meg88
But John Boehner, the Ohio rep......says he's the man to help Republicans restore the principles they embraced in 1994, since he was one of the authors of the original Contract with America.

It may have been a better idea to stick with it, since it was a great plan. Trying to harken back may seem a little snake oil-ish to some. In my opinion, the remaining true conservatives should just come clean and admit they lost their way. Disassociate yourself from the RINOs. Stay true to your convictions. I know....that's a tall order for most politicians.

6 posted on 11/09/2006 10:03:51 AM PST by edpc (Violence is ALWAYS a solution. Maybe not the right one....but a solution nonetheless)
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To: meg88

NO! The Republican Party is finished. Now that the RATS are in power, they are going to pass a sweeping amnesty bill that's going to allow millions of illegals to vote as citizens. Guess what party they are signing up with? Naturally, it's the RAT party. With that many new RAT voters, we will never be able to take control again. There's just too many of them.


7 posted on 11/09/2006 10:03:51 AM PST by NRA2BFree (THOSE WHO LIVE BY THE SWORD GET SHOT BY THOSE WHO DON*T!)
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To: meg88

see tagline.


8 posted on 11/09/2006 10:04:19 AM PST by hispanarepublicana (Funny, but I don't remember pressing 1 for English in 1994.)
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To: meg88
Only when the leadership gets on the bandwagon, appeasing the demcRats is a failure. The President took blame for the loss unlike Rodney King who just said can't we all just get along. Get along will get you no where he is sitting down with people who hate him and will prove it after January.
9 posted on 11/09/2006 10:05:37 AM PST by boomop1 (there you go again)
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To: MikeA

I don't want Pence after his betrayal of Tancredo on illegal immigration...


10 posted on 11/09/2006 10:05:56 AM PST by sam_whiskey (Peace through Strength)
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To: sam_whiskey

Well, then who should it be besides Tancredo himself? The few who supported his severe solutions to illegal immigration were mostly swept out of office Tuesday. So Pence who has a reasonable and tough idea which is enforcement with some allowance for a guest worker plan is as good a pick as any. His plan isn't that bad. It's better than the Senate's was.


11 posted on 11/09/2006 10:09:24 AM PST by MikeA (Where's the media to call the elections a "temper tantrum" by America like they did in 1994?)
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To: Mo1

Unless the Democrats royally screw things up, the GOP is not getting congress back. In 2 years when the elections are held all we're going to see are images of iraq and corruption in congress. Then they're going ot say.. Is this what you want again? The GOP blew it.


12 posted on 11/09/2006 10:10:22 AM PST by Wavve31 (Nobel Peace Prize Nomination)
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Only if we can clone Ronald Reagan and get Newt back in power. Other than that I say Cumbaya.


13 posted on 11/09/2006 10:10:26 AM PST by Long Island Pete
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To: MikeA

It's amnesty...


14 posted on 11/09/2006 10:12:56 AM PST by sam_whiskey (Peace through Strength)
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To: Mo1
Though the GOP needs to remember their history .. they also need to look at the future Otherwise they are just stuck

Stop trying to find a Ronald Reagan clone would be a good start.

15 posted on 11/09/2006 10:14:05 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: sam_whiskey

No it's not. Crimeny I'm so sick of the misuse of that term. Amnesty is a no strings attached, no penalty to pay forgiveness. There's nothing like that in Pence's plan.


16 posted on 11/09/2006 10:14:14 AM PST by MikeA (Where's the media to call the elections a "temper tantrum" by America like they did in 1994?)
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To: meg88
Boehner and Blunt have the charisma of a door nail. We need to do better than that.
17 posted on 11/09/2006 10:14:50 AM PST by The South Texan (The Democrat Party and the leftist (ABCCBSNBCCNN NYLATIMES)media are a criminal enterprise!)
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To: meg88
No they can not- the virus of power and elitism has infected them and there is no cure other than a total amputation to stop the spread.

Christian news and commentary at: sacredscoop.com ...

18 posted on 11/09/2006 10:14:54 AM PST by CottShop (http://sacredscoop.com)
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To: meg88

Yeah, if the pubs will get back to basic values, stressing faith, family values, lower taxes, etc. Pubs couldn't go wrong. However, with all the scandals contradicting faith and family values like Mark Foley, national budget went awry, gasoline going astronomical, the Iraqi war, etc., the main message got lost. People tired of the scandals and outrageousness linked to the Republican Party.


19 posted on 11/09/2006 10:15:33 AM PST by lilylangtree
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To: NRA2BFree

That is the loss.

But it is not like Bush would have done anything about
it anyway. We were lost anyway. Now we just know it.


20 posted on 11/09/2006 10:15:51 AM PST by mtairycitizen
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