“The election process has turned into an incumbency protection process in which lobbyists attend PAC fundraisers to raise money for incumbents so they can drown potential opponents, thus creating war chests that convince candidates not to run and freeing up incumbents to spend more time in Washington PAC fundraisers. So, in effect, this city is building a wall of money to protect itself from America.”
And, no, he’s not talking about the U.S. Congress under Tom Foley. He’s talking about the U.S. Congress after 12 years of Republican control. It all started out well and good. Republican reformers were going to come in and actually pass the legislation they actually campaigned on. As time went on, however, things changed, compromises were made, and even the commitment to term limits was shown to be largely fradulent. Looking back today at 1994, it appears that very little was accomplished.
The speaker advised his former colleagues to hold urgent hearings, and to come up with legislation that, among other things, bans fundraising in Washington and forces disclosure of all contact with lobbyists. The Spirit of ‘94, he said, is at stake.
“That legacy hangs in the balance,” he said. “We arrived here as a reform party. . . . We were real and we were serious.”
So what happened to Republicans in Congress? “You have to go ask them,” the former speaker said.
Nothing will change, however, unless the leadership fears that its power is in jeopardy. Until then, I fear they will only become more entrenched and the time will come when it will be hard to distinguish Republican rules from the worst days of Jim Wright.
H/T to Chad Dotson at Commonwealth Conservative, who makes this excellent point:
The Republican Party continues to be the party of ideas in this nation, but let?s face it, we need a new generation of leaders. We need leaders who will not only remember what ethics are, but who will remain committed to limiting the size and scope of government. I?m not sure where those leaders are going to come from, but if the GOP has a future as the governing party, we must find them.
Well said, but not only must the GOP find candidates committed to the ideals of liberty and limited government, it must find a way to ensure that they stay committed to those ideals. Otherwise, we’ll just be in the same position in another ten years.
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