I will concede that following such a punishment we may well get more solidly conservative candidates we can vote for in future Republican primaries. But they will have to take on either surviving Republican incumbents or incumbent Democrats -- both of which are usually hard to defeat because of the power of incumbency.
It may take several years to regain a majority in the House any more conservative than the one we currently have. Some people may think it worth the wait, but I think the damage likely to be done in the interregnum is not worth it. I suppose reasonable people can differ on this. But I'm strongly inclined to believe that if, after this near-death experience, the Republican majority is re-elected on Nov. 7, they will be powerfully motivated to act more conservatively in 2007 (and they will have learned their lesson while still being a majority -- and thus will be immediately more useful to conservative voters).
I can't argue with the moral absolutists. If they are aware of the policy consequences, but simply refuse to associate with (by voting for) policy-backsliding politicians, that is a principled position. They are made of sterner stuff than I.
I want each new Congress to be as conservative as then politically possible. I will freely associate with lesser evils -- for the greater public good. Perhaps I am too promiscuous with the political company I will keep. But a life in politics convinces me that incremental improvement -- or, at times, even not losing ground -- is better than radical reversal.
Numbers four and five, above, reflect a misunderstanding (or a poor explanation by me in that column) of my intentions. I have nothing against Mr. Hastert personally. He is a good man, and we always got along well when I worked for Newt. But I was -- and am -- convinced that removing Hastert that first week after the Foley story broke was not only the right thing to do, but also would have maximized the Republican chances of holding the majority. The precipitous fall in the polls started at exactly that moment and may only now have bottomed out (if it has, as I hope).
Prompt action by the rank-and-file Republican congressmen (who had no knowledge of the negligence in the Speaker's office going back years in failing to stop Foley), would have been both a clear ethical statement and would have reduced the newsworthiness of the following three weeks of bad Foley news.
But whether or not it was advisable to dismiss the man in charge when something went badly wrong, there is no justification for defeating the party that alone carries the flag of conservative hopes.
For while they didn't carry that flag as far as they should have these last few years, I dread seeing the flag removed from the field.
The Democrats are more radically liberal and irresponsible than they have been at any time since 1933. The damage they will do to every aspect of federal action over the next two, four or six years will be substantial -- perhaps grave. For me, defeating that danger is the highest priority. After the election, beating up backsliding Republicans will be a task I will return to with relish.
Tony Blankley
Tony Blankley, a conservative author and commentator who served as press secretary to Newt Gingrich during the 1990s, when Republicans took control of Congress, died Sunday January 8, 2012. He was 63.
Blankley, who had been suffering from stomach cancer, died Saturday night at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, his wife, Lynda Davis, said Sunday.
In his long career as a political operative and pundit, his most visible role was as a spokesman for and adviser to Gingrich from 1990 to 1997. Gingrich became House Speaker when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives following the 1994 midterm elections.
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