No Permanent GOP Minority

by Robert D. Novak - July 7th, 2008 - Townhall.com

House GOP leaders were triumphant June 27 as Congress recessed for a week. They had passed war funding and telephone surveillance bills with solid Republican backing and minority Democratic support. Chairman David Obey had just shut down the Appropriations Committee process so that Democrats would not be forced to vote on Republican oil-drilling proposals. The Republican leaders congratulated themselves that they were winning the debate over whether boosting production or curbing speculation is the proper response to runaway gasoline prices.

Unfortunately, say Republican reformers, it looked like the operation was a great success but the patient died. Popular though expanded drilling may be, Republicans are blamed for four-dollar gasoline. Away from the party leadership table, members blame a negative Republican image created by leaders.

Republicans cannot "wash their hands" of accountability for the current gas crisis. Though it is true the majority of Republicans, including George Bush and Dennis Hastert, supported drilling during the six years of Republican rule, it was never a priority. The current crisis is the responsibility of Republican leadership and Republicans (mostly moderate Republicans who have no principals but to get elected). What amazes me is the idea that worrying about whether we are a majority or minority is exactly what got us into this mess to start with. It is Karl Rove mentality. Yet Karl Rove is still a powerful force in our party because so few see what a disaster he has been.

The effort of the Lincoln Club, described in this article, does nothing to alter the reality of our problem. Hastert is gone, but Republicans chose him as a leader and he was corrupt. Whether personally corrupt as now appears likely, or merely systemically corrupt as the father of the 285% increase in waste (just to be clear that much increase means the total amount of pork was nearly 4 times as much) makes no difference. Our representatives backed him overwhelmingly. Where was the Lincoln Club then?

Bush will be gone in a few months, but there is still a huge fondness for his "compassionate conservative" philosophy that has unleashed rampant socialism in our nation. Bush has made both parties advocates of huge government. When do we get our party to acknowledge the evil that we have advanced in the name of this con game?

America is at war with movements promoting Islamo-fascism, illegal immigration and global socialism. I don't see the Lincoln Club leading the way to tackle any of these problems or countering these movements. They are leading the way to tear down our current leadership. I agree our leadership is wrong, but I want to know what the Lincoln Club proposes to replace it with. In the meantime Barack Obama and the global socialists are well on their way to victory in the coming election.