Publication: Conservative Review
Business as Usual GOP | |
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THE CONSERVATIVE REVIEW
January 25, 2008
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Business as Usual GOP
By Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. - When House Republicans convene behind
closed doors today (Thursday) at the Greenbrier in White
Sulphur Springs, W.V., they have a chance to make two
bold moves to restore their reputation for fiscal
responsibility. First, they could declare a one-year
moratorium on Republican congressional earmarks. Second,
they could name anti-earmark reformer Rep. Jeff Flake to
a vacancy on the House Appropriations Committee. In fact,
almost surely they will do neither.
Instead, the retreat is likely to adopt some limitation on
earmarks with no public impact and exerting no pressure on
the earmark-happy Democratic majority. Consideration of
Flake's candidacy for Appropriations was postponed until
after this week's earmark debate at the Greenbrier. But
content with a half-measure on earmarks, the House
Republicans will not place insistent reformer Flake in
the midst of the pork-dispensing appropriators.
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Staring into a 2008 election abyss, Republicans lost
credibility as upholders of lean government by sponsoring
profligate pork barrel spending during 12 years in the
congressional majority and have not reformed since the
2006 Democratic takeover. The message out of West Virginia
this week predictably will be business as usual.
Rep. Jerry Lewis, the Appropriations Committee's rank-
ing Republican, leads fellow appropriators against the
moratorium. They are joined by the most seriously
challenged Republican incumbents, who see political
salvation in bringing home the bacon to their districts,
and principles be damned.
If the moratorium were adopted, it would make sense to
put Flake on the Appropriations Committee to harass its
irascible, earmark-loving Democratic chairman, Rep.
David Obey, without offending GOP appropriators. But
if Republicans have not foresworn pork, Flake as an
appropriator would be on a collision course with Lewis.
Under federal investigation for earmarks, Lewis has
lost his customary California cool on the floor when
Flake has challenged his pork projects.
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Flake, a four-term congressman from Arizona who ran the
Goldwater Institute in Phoenix before his election, is
usually a dependable party man and is personally well
liked. But the Republican Party, preferring to operate
as a secretive private corporation, deplores Flake for
discussing the GOP affinity for pork in public instead
of closed forums such as this week's session at the
Greenbrier.
Flake's most prominent competitor for Appropriations is
Rep. Tom Cole, a major political figure in Oklahoma who
currently heads the National Republican Congressional
Committee (NRCC). A few sensitive Republicans worry about
Cole solving the NRCC's fund-raising woes by dispensing
earmarks. But opposition stems mostly from the belief
that Cole's NRCC chairmanship is enough for one congress-
man.
The most likely winner of the Appropriations derby will
be Rep. Dave Reichert, the former sheriff of King County,
Wash. (Seattle) who has not distinguished himself during
three years in Congress and gets only a 60 percent rating
from the American Conservative Union. His sole qualifi-
cation appears to be that he is the most endangered
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the bacon.
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As far as Republicans recovering their fiscal brand, the
appropriators say earmarks are strictly Washington inside
baseball with no public support. They should follow Sen.
John McCain on the campaign trail, as he is cheered for
promising to veto bills with earmarked pork.
McCain as the party's leader is one possible new develop-
ment for the earmarkers to ponder. Then there are possible
new indictments tied to earmarks. In addition to Lewis,
Alaska's two longtime purveyors of pork -- Sen. Ted Stevens
and Rep. Don Young -- are under federal investigation.
Though Flake likely will be kept off the Appropriations
Committee, he will not go away and will be joined this
year by additional Republicans proposing elimination of
individual earmarks. Flake until now has not tried to
kill more than a dozen earmarks on any appropriations bill.
This year, he promises to introduce "many, many more" than
a dozen amendments per bill.
Ironically, the Appropriations vacancy was created by the
appointment of Rep. Roger Wicker of Mississippi to the
Senate. The Washington Post last week reported that Wicker
late last year as an appropriator inserted a $6 million
earmark for a defense firm that contributed to his campaign
and was lobbied by Wicker's former chief of staff. Roger
Wicker is a poster child for an earmark moratorium.
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