An idea-less agenda

January 13, 2006

Tapped’s Sam Rosenfeld suggested yesterday that Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is currently vying to replace Tom DeLay as the House Majority Leader, isn’t receiving nearly enough ridicule for his “For a Majority that Matters” platform (.pdf). If you read it, you’ll see why.

Many GOP caucus members suggested that Boehner and his rival for the post, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), create policy agendas that members could consider before choosing the next Majority Leader, kind of a “campaign platform” to show rank-and-file Republican lawmakers what they’d do in the leadership. Boehner came up with this. It speaks volumes — by hardly saying anything.

Boehner’s agenda spans 37 pages in a PowerPoint-like presentation, highlighting the lawmaker’s vision. For example, there’s this gem:

“A vision doesn’t have to be achievable in the foreseeable future…But you never know. If a vision is powerful enough and the commitment to it great enough, it might even come true. President Reagan left the White House with America much as he hoped it would be in that first inaugural address. The Nazis were defeated. And in August 1989, Poland became free.”

Now, if this were just an introductory point to help capture Boehner’s big picture, it would merely be bad writing. But the problem is the “platform” doesn’t get any better. Boehner goes on for 37 pages talking about why he should be the House Majority Leader without actually mentioning a substantive issue, policy, bill, or idea.

Instead, we get platitudes such as, “Where are we? Stuck in neutral, and hesitant to push the accelerator.” Where does Boehner want to accelerate to? I don’t know; he didn’t say. I’ve seen high school student council candidates produce more substance.

It’s not just that Boehner and Blunt are weak; it’s that this further highlights the decline of the party which is supposed to be the “party of ideas.”

Matt Yglesias explained this well earlier this week.

Take a look at John Boehner’s campaign platform in his race for majority leader and you’ll see just that phenomenon — lots of vague invocations of the need for big thinking and calls for “a majority that matters,” but no actual ideas or any idea of how the Boehnerified GOP majority will matter.

This despite the oft-heard and always-annoying complaint that Democrats lack new ideas. There’s just nothing happening on the Republican side.

Nothing but fear of getting caught in a corruption scandal. And tax cuts. Lots and lots of tax cuts.

The Nazi’s were defeated? Wow, I guess I must have be engaging in “revisionist history”, here I thought we solved that problem in the 40s. Lo and behold, Reagan got rid of the Nazi’s in the 80s – it was probably all that reaganomics.

Shame on me for rewriting history.

  • CB, thank you for reaading that Boehner piece of work, so that we do not have to.

    Maybe he is referring to “Femi-nazis.” Although I do not think they were defeated.

  • You can’t blame Boehner for being vague.
    The real republican congressional platform needs to be hidden.

    I imagine a different republican agenda statement….
    Service!
    A vision of mountains of greenbacks , gold bullion, silver coins, and stock options. The fruit of a mighty nation is waiting for to be plucked , but only for those with strict party discipline to protect exclusive access to powerful and generous friends whose satisfaction is our highest priority. The K street customer is always right.

  • “Clearly a victim of Indiana’s schools. When did he move to Ohio?”

    Now wait a minute! Some of our guys are pretty dumb (Dan Quayle, Dan Coats, Dan Burton, Chris Chocola, etc.) but they can blame out-of-state universities for these problems. Yeah…Yeah…that’s the problem, Boehner went to a non-Indiana university!

    Just think what he’d have produced if he was a graduate of Indiana University’s School of Journalism or Ball State’s multimedia program.

    All jokes aside, I don’t think Boehner’s problem is education or lack thereof (Indiana school or not). I believe it’s called a lack of compassion and understanding. Of course, that seems to be a common problem with many Republicans in Washington DC right now (not to mention many other places as well).

  • My thoughts exactly, My Dog Alex, except I suspect he really thinks Reagan defeated the Nazis. Sad. And scary.

  • “Where are we? Stuck in neutral, and hesitant to push the accelerator.”

    Does he not understand that pushing the accelerator while in neutral just revs the engine but doesn’t get you anywhere?

  • And tax cuts. Lots and lots of tax cuts.

    But only for investors and the wealthy. If you’re poor, the IRS will withhold your returns and refuse tell you why. Is this another method of subsidizing the tax cuts for the wealthy?

  • To be fair, he was referring to three separate statements from Reagan, Churchill, and Pope John Paul II. But the entire document really is as bad as that “pressing the accelerator while stuck in neutral” metaphor would suggest.

    On the other hand, when Boehner talks about the ’94 GOP landslide, Dems would be well-advised to listen; Boehner obviously has no idea how to handle a powerful majority with an unpopular agenda (“Talk louder! Design a new vision by committee!”) but he was part of the original takeover.

    Oh — and if Boehner manages to create the kind of leadership-run committee system he envisions (an executive Congress, if you will), expect things to get really nasty on the floor. There’s the skeleton of some pretty effective if vicious tactics in the document.

  • From his 30 odd page statement:

    “I’ve talked a lot about vision. What’s my vision? Here’s what my staff and I have used, mostly unchanged, for the last 10 years: ‘A better America based on individual freedoms and opportunities, empowered citizens, personal and community responsibility, and restored trust between citizens and their government.'”

    In other words, he says little more about vision than recite an vague talking point. This is little more illuminating than simply mouthing the words “Truth Justice and the American Way!”

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