Quick quiz: a prominent political figure in Washington criticized congressional Republicans yesterday for their lack of ideas and leadership. Howard Dean? Rahm Emanuel? Harry Reid? Try [tag]Tom DeLay[/tag].
Departing Rep. Tom [tag]DeLay[/tag] of Texas said yesterday that House Republicans have no vision or agenda and have let the Democrats choose the GOP leadership.
“We don’t have an agreed agenda — breaking up our leadership has taken its toll,” Mr. DeLay told a small group of reporters invited to his offices in the Cannon House Office Building.
I’ll gladly give House Republicans credit for putting on a brave face yesterday. Only the House GOP would think to send out a fundraising letter — as the NRCC did yesterday — asking for money to celebrate DeLay resigning in disgrace.
But lurking just below the smiles and congratulatory praise for DeLay was the realization that congressional Republicans have weak leadership, no ideas, a stalled agenda, and limited future prospects. The rank-and-file GOP are looking around wondering what their party is all about and pondering an unsure election cycle. They are, in other words, where Democrats were a few years ago.
On Capitol Hill last week, it was almost as if the two parties had decided to switch roles. At a press briefing, House [tag]Democratic[/tag] Whip Steny Hoyer was declaring, “Republicans don’t have an agenda,” a critique Republicans usually hurl at [tag]Democrat[/tag]s. The next day Hoyer and other [tag]Democrats[/tag] from the Senate and House, along with state governors, got together to announce the party’s unified plan for improving America’s national security.
Meanwhile, [tag]Republican[/tag]s were looking in disarray — even before the announcement this week that Tom DeLay would give up his House seat. Some House Republicans were quietly raising concerns after Majority Leader John Boehner questioned the value of a 700-mile fence for the U.S.-Mexico border that was part of an immigration bill passed by the House in December, while Senate Republicans questioned if their leader, Bill Frist, was allowing his presidential ambitions to get in the way of passing immigration legislation. And as the Senate moved forward with a lenient immigration reform plan, a group of almost two dozen House Republicans held a press conference to strongly denounce the Senate GOP’s approach.
The conventional wisdom in Washington in recent years has been that [tag]Republicans[/tag] are more unified and disciplined and have better-articulated ideas than Democrats, who are often at war with one another and questioning their leadership. But lately the Democrats, looking to create a campaign platform for 2006, have put out some ideas that their famously fractured party largely agrees on.
Dems are getting together on policy agendas in advance of the midterm elections and they’re literally writing books full of new policy ideas. Republicans have some old ideas that are of limited electoral value (tax cuts, flag burning), and some new ideas that divide the party in half (immigration, spending cuts, health savings accounts).
Sure, it’s hard for Dems to get too excited when the GOP controls literally every branch of government, but as of now, the party is right where it needs to be — and, coincidentally, Republicans are right where the Dems need them to be, too.
Consider this your morale boost of the day.