Webloggin » The GOP Leadership Problem

I guess it wasn’t enough to lose majorities in both the House and the Senate. You would think that the Republican leadership would step back for a minute to contemplate where they went wrong leading up to last Tuesday’s smack back. Yet rumors are circulating that the GOP is poised to re-elect the same leaders who failed us so miserably.

The likely possibility that both Boehner and Blunt will be reelected to leadership positions on Friday should be clue number 1 that the party isn’t serious about fixing the problems that hurt it so badly in the last election. Their ties to K Street lobbyists and continued support for earmarking smack of the kind of politics that infuriate those who want a smaller more accountable government.

Robert Novak wrote an article in yesterday’s Chicago Sun Times that summed it up perfectly.

The depleted House Republican caucus, a minority in the next Congress, convenes at 8 a.m. Friday in the Capitol on the brink of committing an act of supreme irrationality. The House members blame their leadership for tasting the bitter dregs of defeat. Yet, the consensus so far is that, in secret ballot, they will re-elect some or all of those leaders,

In private conversation, Republican members blame Majority Leader John Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt in no small part for their mid-term election debacle. Yet, either Boehner, Blunt or both are expected to be returned to their leadership posts Friday. For good reason, the GOP often is called “the stupid party.”

For those of you who think that earmarks are a uniquely Republican problem think again. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are using them to line their own pockets with taxpayer money. Earmarks are line item funds that are allocated outside the normal budgetary process and are not requested by the executive branch of the government. Funny, the one line item measure that is supported by Congress benefits them the most.

In 2005 $47 billion dollars was allocated in an earmarking process that resulted in the conviction of Duke Cunningham, nearly saw $223 million allocated for a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, allowed House Speaker Dennis Hastert to net $1.8 million dollars in a land deal, and most recently is benefiting Harry Reid who earmarked $18 million dollars for a bridge across the Colorado River that just happens to connect up to land that he owns on the other side.

The concern here of course is that Blunt is out stumping to retain his position as the minority whip by defending earmarks. Great move from someone who has his own personal ties to K Street lobbyists. I guess we might say “who doesn’t?”.

Boehner himself does not exude confidence when it comes to reform. He has heavy ties to lobbyists which apparently he isn’t shy about admitting. Boehner represented the GOP leadership in 1998 when he was tossed after Republicans lost seats in that election. His reintroduction to the leadership resulted in something worse last week when Republicans lost both the House and the Senate in a stunning reversal of power. Not that the problems in the last election rest solely on his shoulders. But he is part of the problem and certainly not the solution when it comes to shedding the perception that the leadership is out to represent the lobbyists as opposed to representing the people who elected them to office.

Ed Morrisey at Captains Quarters further elaborates.

John Boehner and Roy Blunt have been loyal Republican Congressmen. However, as the Club for Growth has noted, both men have been part of the efforts that have separated the GOP majority from its 1994 reformist roots. When Jeff Flake offered a score of anti-pork amendments in this session, both men voted to defeat all of them. Both men voted to approve the pork-laden Highway and Energy bills. Boehner has a better track record than Blunt; he opposed the BCRA in 2002, for instance. However, he has appeared ready to shift positions away from conservative principles for political expediency (on 527s, as CFG points out), not exactly the stalwart defenders of party policy that one expects from leadership.

Exactly right. The fact that Blunt and Boehner have been loyal to the party is not the problem. The Party has lost its way like a ship without a rudder. The only way to right its course is to make a change that will put conservative values back on the table. Unfortunately, loyal as they may be, Blunt and Boehner are not the answer.

We will be destined to flush another election down the toilet if the Republicans don’t get fresh new faces in front of the American people. The same ol’ same ol’ may be good enough for the remaining Republicans in Congress but it will not fly with middle America.