Earlier this week, Red County contributor Media Lizzy interviewed Congressman Eric Cantor for her BlogTalkRadio show, Heading Right.Guerrilla House or Great Leadership? Yesterday, Members of the US House GOP defied Speaker Nancy Pelosi - even after she turned the lights off while Chief Deputy (Minority) Whip Eric Cantor, R-VA, was speaking. Congressman Cantor called in to discuss the Economic Crisis in America - and the American Energy Plan.
Following the Republican defeats of election night 2006, Carol Platt Liebau wrote an article for Townhall.com titled, "Recapturing the Spirit of '94". She used the article to, in part, emphasize the importance that congressional Republicans should re-embrace the principle of fiscal responsibility.
Why are some lessons so difficult to learn?
Here are the key paragraphs...
... it's time for Republicans to let the sunshine - and the base - back in. For far too long, too many Republican politicians have treated the conservative base like Ross Perot's proverbial crazy aunt in the attic. Certainly, there's no place in either party for unreasoned extremism. But there's likewise no justification for Republican officials' inexplicable tendency to behave as though good, reasonable conservatives are either too unsophisticated to be taken seriously, too foolish to understand when the issues most important to them are being ignored, or too slavishly devoted to the GOP to withhold their votes when politicians haven't gotten the job done.
In short, congressional Republicans need to begin treating the base less like a rampaging beast to be placated, and more like a trusted friend to be consulted. Too often, party decision-making has a cliquish element reminiscent of an eighth grade cheerleading squad. Would it really hurt anyone for the politicians to turn to the people who fund, electioneer and vote for them most loyally and ask, "What do you think?"? Seeking input about the candidates for the party's new leaders would be a great way to start the conversation. Communication and transparency are key - and given the advent of talk radio and the blogosphere, easily accomplished. It hasn't been happening, and it's time for it to start.
There's no doubt that challenges come with defeat - but there are also new opportunities. It's time for congressional Republicans to close the book on Election Night '06 and resolve that, by November of 2008, theirs will once again be the party that Americans trust with their pocketbooks, their values - and, in an era of Islamofascist terrorism, with their lives.
The whole article can be read here.
Still oblivious to the source of our discontent, a number of free-spending Republicans recently rushed to meet House GOP leader John Boehner, urging him not to back an earmark reform proposal from the Republican Study Committee. The idea they fought so mightily against? A ban on earmark requests from Republican members of Congress for one year.
The porkers' struggle is typified by Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia--sponsor or co-sponsor of $83MM in earmarks in last year's budget alone--who, amazingly, defended earmarks as "being entrepreneurial about bringing something home."
In response to us on that remark, former Speaker Newt Gingrich scathingly replied, "There's nothing entrepreneurial about the Appropriations Committee spending other people's money."
Alas, bold GOP leadership on earmark reform is still nearly absent in Washington. Michigan's Thad McCotter highlights this by arguing the futility of fighting for earmark reform, saying members of the House can't lead on the issue because, "...we are not the field marshals, we are the foot soldiers."
Thank goodness Newt Gingrich suffered no such humility in 1994.
That's the view expressed in the Lincoln Club paper signed by Rich Wagner, the group's president, and Chip Hanlon, a board member. It deplores the refusal by party leaders to support a one-year moratorium on earmarks, whose 285 percent growth when Congress was under Republican control is "the perfect symbol of the GOP-led profligacy that drives us crazy still." Earmarks "epitomize the fiscal recklessness that led to Republicans becoming a minority in 2006. . . . It's no wonder the Republican leadership continued to fail on . . . entitlement reform and a reduction in federal spending."
The Lincoln Club blasts conservative Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, whose personal earmarks totaled $83 million last year, for defending his pork as "being entrepreneurial about bringing something home." It also assails conservative Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan, a member of the leadership who has opposed earmark reform and voted on the floor against only one earmark. With his annual earmarks totaling $22.5 million, McCotter declared a year ago, "I will not unilaterally disarm my donor state."
On June 25, however, McCotter apparently felt enough heat to disarm unilaterally, with a surprise announcement that he had requested no earmarks this year. It may be too late for the 42-year-old third-termer, threatened with losing his House Republican Policy Committee chairmanship after only two years if the Lincoln Club of Orange County gets its clean sweep.
"We urge other Republican donor groups to reinforce this important beginning," read the club's ultimatum. It went on: "It is not credible to ask the American people to return Republicans to the majority when all we offer them is the same group of leaders and policies they so recently rejected."
The statement asserts that these leaders "have no idea what we say when we get together" and are "still oblivious to the source of our discontent." Now, if these contributors have their way, it is too late for the leaders, at least in the House. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who began his campaign for re-election in Kentucky by bragging about his earmarks for the state, probably has more to worry about from his Democratic election foe than insurgent Republican senators. But House Minority Leader John Boehner, who sponsors no earmarks himself but has not backed reform, faces an all-too-serious challenge.
The grumbling. The head shaking. The anger.Outrageous Earmarks
By Congressman John Campbell
7-11-2008 11:21 am
I have made a major part of my Congressional career so far to be one of the leaders [along with Jeff Flake (R-AZ)] in the fight against the wasteful and abusive pork spending known as earmarks. I would love to tell you that we have been successful in getting earmarks eliminated or substantially reformed. But no. Gosh, I wish I could tell you that at least they are all being disclosed or not dropped into bills in the dark of night with no hearing. But that hasn't happened either. There has been a bipartisan addiction to these things which continues to this day.
But what we have been successful in doing is raising the issue with the press and the public. Just a couple of years ago, the public didn't even know what was going on with earmarks and the press didn't cover them. But that has all changed. The press now is all over the issue and polls show that the public overwhelmingly wants the practice to stop. Even in Alaska, in which the famed "bridge to nowhere" was to be built and where the earmarks per capita are by far the highest in the country, a majority of the voting public would now give up the pork to see all earmarks go away. Senator John McCain has stated that as president he would veto every spending bill that contained even a single earmark.
A number of reporters are now digging into past earmarks and their connection with the campaign contributions or family members or personal finances of the Congressmen and women who requested them. I read a new story nearly every day from somewhere in the country about another earmark under scrutiny by someone for questionable ethics. Here are some of the most recent reports with a summary and a link to the whole story if you want to read or see it.
Twinkle Toes: Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) garnered $150,000 for the American Ballet Theatre in New York for "educational activities." Bolstered by $28 million from private fundraising, The American Ballet Theatre hardly needs a taxpayer hand out.
Taxpayer Funded Caddy shack: $3 million for a golf school for children. That's right. $3 million of your tax money to teach kids to play golf......out of the DEFENSE budget. Not surprisingly, the money will go to the James E. Clyburn Golf Center.
Woodstock Museum: $1,000,000 to create a museum honoring the 1969 Woodstock music festival.
$5 Million Parking Spot: Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) earmarked $5.6 million for a parking garage next to the "Kanjorski Center" which is currently unoccupied, and the parking garage violates federal construction standards.
The Big Kahuna: $1.1 billion in an attempt to put salmon into a river that has run dry. The threshold for success is very small. According to the settlement, if only 500 fish return, the project will be deemed successful. If you do the math, that makes each fish worth $21 million dollars.
Lobster Institute: $188,000 for Lobster research and education at the University of Maine, some of its accomplishments include: "The Lobster Cam" and Lobster flavored dog biscuits. Taxpayers can thank Senators Olympia Snow(R-ME), Susan Collins(R-ME), and Rep. Thomas Allen (D-ME).
Made for Walking: $98,000 to develop a walking tour of Boydton, Virginia. Population: 454. Courtesy of Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA).
So what happens now? The spending culture inside the beltway in favor of earmarks is enormously powerful. Myself and the rest of our band of earmark warriors will try again to get the entire House or the Republican caucus to adopt a one year moratorium on earmarks until we adopt changes to reform the process and stop some of the abuses described above.
I'll keep you informed of our progress. But even if we fail, we will not give up. And you shouldn't either. Because eventually, the beltway crowd cannot ignore the will of the people.