Editorial of the Day: The House GOP’s Real Problems

OpinionJournal.com lays it out, delivers tough, deserved criticism, and sounds a warning that had best be heeded (bolds are mine):

Incumbency Over Ideas

The idea seems to be that a ban on lobbyist-paid golf junkets or limits on the House floor privileges of former Members of Congress will prevent the next Jack Abramoff.

This is a junior-achievement version of what Democrats did in responding to the Clinton fund-raising scandals by adopting the cause of “campaign-finance reform.” Why is it that whenever Congress gets into an ethics scrape, its first reaction is to further restrict the Constitutional rights of other Americans to influence Members of Congress? We can only hope these “reforms” will be as trivial as they sound.

The real House GOP problem isn’t about lobbyists so much as it is the atrophying of its principles. As their years in power have stretched on, House Republicans have become more passionate about retaining power than in using that power to change or limit the federal government. Gathering votes for serious policy is difficult and tends to divide a majority. Re-election unites them, however, so the leadership has gradually settled for raising money on K Street and satisfying Beltway interest groups to sustain their incumbency.

This strategy has maintained a narrow majority, but at the cost of doing anything substantial. The last year in particular was an historic lost opportunity. House Republicans were also the main culprit in watering down Medicare reform, while Ohio’s Mike Oxley has run the Financial Services Committee more or less as liberal Barney Frank would. Beyond welfare reform and tax cuts (and perhaps health-savings accounts), the GOP has achieved little in the last decade that will outlast the next Democratic majority.

Meanwhile, the most talented and policy-driven Members have continued to leave Congress for other opportunities. Chris Cox now runs the SEC, Rob Portman is the U.S. trade rep, J.C. Watts is in the private sector, and others are running for Governor or the Senate. The leaders who remain have become ever more preoccupied with process, money and incumbency. Ideas are an afterthought, when they aren’t an inconvenience.

As House Republicans consider replacing Mr. DeLay, they need to choose someone who will reinvigorate their commitment to reforming Washington. And this may mean more change than they’d otherwise prefer entering an election year.

….. Our sense is that Republicans don’t yet appreciate the trouble they’re in. Confident of K Street money and gerrymandered districts, they think the voters will never turn Congress over to a party run by Nancy Pelosi. But that’s also what Democrats and the media thought about Republicans led by Newt Gingrich in 1994. Eventually, voters may grow more disgusted with Republicans who care only about re-election than they are afraid of Ms. Pelosi’s San Francisco liberalism.

Let’s face it: The GOP’s performance on everything except the War on Terror and taxes has been awful for at least the past three years. This is what we get when “conservatives” are in control?

The GOP’s best friends right now are the people driving the other party to the far left. If the adults ever get back in charge in Donkeyland and become credible to swing voters, watch out.

In his OpinionJournal.com column today John Fund says that “The Abramoff scandal may sink congressional Republicans if they don’t get serious about spending reforms ….. The federal government is now 250 times as big in real terms as it was a century ago. If Republicans don’t use Mr. DeLay’s departure to restore their limited-government credentials, they will see their own voters rebel.”

Therein lies the silver lining: fear can be a great motivator. If they DO get serious, they can still run the table in November.