The Need for More Conservative Republicans
I’m sure many of you are as frustrated as I am that much of the conservative agenda, such as drilling in ANWR, has not yet been implemented.
Paul Weyrich has an excellent article reasoning that Liberal Republicans–not the House and Senate Republican Leadership–are preventing a more conservative agenda from being enacted into law. Weyrich explains that because the Dems are voting as a block in both the House and the Senate, the 22 to 26 Liberal House Republicans and 7 Liberal Senators have blocked conservative legislation from either moving out of committee or coming to a vote. Here’s Weyrich’s solution:
What is to be done? Most Liberal Republicans have been in Washington long enough to chair either committee or subcommittee. The Leadership should get the Republican Conference in both Houses to adopt a legislative agenda. Senators and Congressmen would be told in advance that the agenda would include party discipline votes. If a Senator or Congressman would not vote for the GOP agenda he or she could not chair a committee or subcommittee. Just watch how reasonable some Liberal Republicans would become. Chairmanships bring prestige. They bring the opportunity to move issues of interest to the chairs. They bring additional staff and monies with which to run the committee or subcommittee. Few willingly would give up those chairmanships for the sake of voting against ANWR or other divisive issues.
Threatening Republicans with the loss of their chairmanships is a great idea though many Republicans would throw a political tantrum. Weyrich expects this but feels the tantrum and potential fallout would be worth it:
The GOP Leadership won’t propose an agenda because it fears that Liberal Republicans would defect to the Democratic Party. I doubt they would. Many of them could not be elected as Democrats. If they were to defect, so be it. If it meant that because of defections the Democrats would control Congress, well and good. Then at least the situation would be clarified, Liberals in one party, Conservatives in the other. Conservatives then could do the real work for which they were elected free of political blackmail by Liberal Republicans. It would be tough medicine to administer. Some Conservatives wouldn’t like it either because they would not want that kind of penalty hanging over their heads.
The Republican Leadership find themselves in a quandry: Get tough with the Liberal Republicans or face voter dissatisfaction at the polls and within the conservative Republican base. It’s time to get tough and let the Liberals fall where they may.