Pity Party - (Time to take the party back)

Opinion Journal ^ | May 2008 | Peggy Noonan

[mek1959]

The Democrats aren't the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead. For all their fractious fighting, they're finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They're busy being born.

[mek1959]

Perhaps Peggy's on to something; it's time to take the party back, though first, it might have to fail.

The current leadership of the party is straight out of the Nixon/Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (remember him?) mold and will lead us nowhere but another 40 years in the wilderness. Believe me, I'm painfully aware of how that feels.

In the mid-eighties, I worked on the "Hill" for a couple of different republicans - it was painful. Jim Wright was the speaker and Bob Michael was the minority (let me emphasize MINORTY) leader. It was hard. We got nothing except the occasional bone they threw at us and got creamed vote after vote after vote. Michael was more interested in his barbershop quartet than confronting the lib policies coming down from on high. Thank goodness we had Reagan or we'd have been really hosed.

Anyway, perhaps we need to go back into the wilderness for a short while to bring forth another Newt. Now I know many of you think he's a hack, all I say to you is that most of you weren't there. When Newt rose into leadership, he personally breathed wind into the sails; finally, somebody was willing to fight. Now we have Boehner and though he's a pretty good guy and one of Newt's "Gang of Seven", he's inherited a mess up there under Denny Hastert. A purging of the dead weight will help him lead.

In the end, it will take NEW conservative blood to inspire fresh ideas and the cojones to take on Pelosi and draw clear lines. Newt did that in the 80's and 90's. For all his shortcomings, and there are many, he wasn't afraid.

Where are the next group of conservatives who will draw the lines starkly? They're not up there now and a 70 seat loss may not be the worst thing.

I will say this, Bush finally took on an issue yesterday with his Chamberlain comparison to Obama and boy did he stir a hornet’s nest. This is the model to follow; draw the lines starkly. And while we may dodge a major disaster with McCain beating Obama (I'm no McCain fan), purging the House in the short-term may not be the worst thing thing to happen. Believe me, limp wristed republicans in the House of the Michael variety does nothing but sentence us to a very long period in the wilderness - a very long period.

Just my thoughts.