Republican Rebels of '94 Now Face Their Own Revolt

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Faded Contract

Republican Rebels of '94 Now Face Their Own Revolt

Promises to Balance Budget And Shrink Government Lost Steam in Congress
Assailing 'Influences of Power'
By JACKIE CALMES
November 3, 2006; Page A1

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The widespread sense that Republicans in Congress have lost their way, drifting into the same abuses they had pledged to end, helps explain why many, like Mr. Hayworth (R-AZ), are in trouble. The Republicans' 1994 "Contract with America" vowed to shrink government, balance the budget and limit members' terms. The Republicans said they would end Congress's "cycle of scandal and disgrace." That contract is now broken, conservatives say, as the former rebels have morphed into an establishment clinging to power... Their original vow to kick the pork barrel has given way to gorging on "earmarks" -- funds lawmakers specifically set aside for special projects -- in the annual appropriations bills. There have been a number of corruption probes.

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Among those who lament that the movement has gone astray is Newt Gingrich, the general behind the 1994 revolution, who became House speaker but was forced out four years later. "This is a center-right country with a willingness to tolerate a little bit of incompetence. But it's certainly getting more than it needs," said Mr. Gingrich, in an interview this summer. "The Republican Party drifted away from reform and changed back to a standard political party."

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Some Republican lawmakers, including more recent arrivals, still try to hew to the revolution's principles. Among them are three of Mr. Hayworth's fellow Arizona Republicans -- Reps. Shadegg and Jeff Flake, elected in 2000, as well as Sen. John McCain. They have led a mostly losing fight against the explosion in earmarks. For many congressional Republicans, the shift from reform to self-preservation was most evident at the start of the current Congress last year. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, anticipating his indictment on corruption charges, pushed a change in House rules so he could remain as leader. After a public furor, Republicans reversed it. Mr. DeLay resigned last June. Of the Republicans who entered the House after 1994, just under half remain. Several have moved on to be governors or senators. Ohio's Rep. Bob Ney faces prison after pleading guilty in the influence-peddling Abramoff scandal. Florida's Rep. Mark Foley resigned after disclosures of lewd computer messages he had sent teenage House pages.

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In 1992, still in the minority, then-Rep. Gingrich taunted Democrats, "I am committed to hunting down every appropriation ... that is some politician taking care of himself." But in 1995, the new Republican-led Congress approved a record 1,430 projects worth $10 billion in the year's appropriations bills, according to the conservative group Citizens Against Government Waste. The totals escalated annually -- to 9,963 projects valued at $29 billion for fiscal 2006... Earmarks have gone from perks for the powerful to goodies spread all around -- as incumbent protection, grease to get votes for hard-to-pass bills and, as Mr. Cunningham's conviction attests, payback for benefactors. Democrats get a smaller piece of the pie. A Republican database tracks tens of thousands of member requests for new projects. At orientations to Congress, Republican leaders instruct new members how to get projects, Mr. Flake says. "You're told you have to do that to be re-elected."

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[yellowcanine]

1. Newt has no room to talk. He presided over the transition from "revolutionary change"

to "same old same old", whether one is talking about term limits (remember them?), budget discipline, corruption, or whatever. Plus he instituted a level of tyrannical partisan majority rule that the Democrats had never engaged in when they were in power.