Politics / '96 Cheers
Norquist, Grover G.
'96 Cheers Since the "inauguration" of Speaker Gingrich and Majority Leader Dole, the most frequently asked question in Republican circles in Washington has been, "Who should be the candidate for...
...In 1994, Gingrich and Armey urged Dole and Gramm to join them in drafting and promoting the pledge, but the Senate felt itself above such commitments...
...A presidential candidate is no longer needed to give the Republican Party a vision...
...The Democrats held both houses of Congress for forty years (less the 1980-1986 loss of the Senate) and, over time, came to look down on the presidency-witness the sorts they have thrown up as nominees...
...But to help the Democrats, the establishment press stonewalled the stories of Clinton's personal excesses until he had won the White House...
...That's all there is to it...
...The presidential candidate will run on this contract, not write it...
...But his office is a weak weapon against a Congress determined not to pass a bill, not to raise taxes, not to spend more money...
...Ronald Reagan was the Republican platform in 1980 and 1984, while Republican candidates for the House and Senate rode on his coattails...
...he can veto...
...The family finances of Geraldine Ferraro were paid no attention until she had been awarded the nomination...
...But the powers of the presidency and the powers of Congress are far from being an even match...
...He did not try to add any element to the Republican coalition that would drive out a similarly sized or larger existing member of the coalition...
...Democratic leaders and committee chairs never had any interest in deferring to the visions or agenda of these men...
...If Republican liberals exist in the Newt freshman class, they are talking publicly just like Reaganites...
...It is not, for the moment, an especially crucial question...
...In the House, for example,'Bob Michel has retired, but in the Senate, Bob Dole remains the Republican leader-as he has since 1984...
...Republican House staffers point out that Jack Kemp was not elected into leadership until 1980...
...The contract Republicans offer in 1996 will outdo the party's own platform in importance and will be drafted by House and Senate leaders, with almost certain assistance from governors...
...A Republican president might well speed up the dismantling of the welfare state and help to disperse power back to states and individuals, but the next two years will demonstrate just how much a party determined to reduce the size and cost of government can accomplish without having control of the White House...
...If Senate Republicans actually cut spending $40 billion a year as promised, the equivalent of 800,000 workers at $50,000 each will be eliminated...
...If Clinton wants $20 billion for a spending program, and Newt Gingrich can convince the Republican House to hold the line at $10 billion, a veto gives Clinton's program not $20 billion, but zero...
...The president can stop or slow demands for new laws, higher taxes, and more spending...
...Without Reagan on the ballot in 1982 and 1986, however, Republicans faltered...
...And every billion not spent means the loss of 20,000 government jobs at $50,000 per annum...
...1 TAS Address Changes Made Easy...
...Nelson Rockefeller in 1960, but to do so he had to accommodate the eastern liberals with his vice-presidential selection, Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts...
...Pete du Pont, who coordinated the state legislative effort in the midterm elections, predicts that all fifty states will respond to popular demand and have fully written contracts for the 1996 election...
...With limited resources, a focused Republican Party should be as interested in maintaining the House majorityand winning 60 solid Republican votes in the Senate-as it is about the White House...
...The most important task for any Republican presidential candidate will be to avoid embarrassing the party, for the GOP cannot afford a candidate who carries Clintonite luggage of personal by Grover G. Norquist scandal and financial corruption...
...The campaign to gain conservative control of the House and Senate took even longer than the struggle to win conservative control over the GOP presidential nomination process...
...they have no leadership roles and are approaching retirement or defeat in the next round of GOP primaries...
...O 56 The American Spectator March 1995...
...Barry Goldwater's victory over Rockefeller four years later marked the definitive shift to the Sun r n MOVING...
...Each actually ran on the Democratic congressional wish list as his- campaign agenda...
...While the Republican agenda has thus been created entirely by the House, voters and the establishment media have made no differentiation between Republicans who ran on the pledge for the House and senators who lamely point out (in private, not public) that they never signed any contract...
...While capturing the presidency is important to complete the Republican assumption of power in Washington, it is increasingly less important just who that president is...
...Some argue that there was no Reaganite working majority of the Republican caucus in the House until 1984...
...Bush's betrayal of that pledge in 1990 hurt the entire party in the midterm elections...
...1. Please write your new address in the space provided...
...Gary Hart's personal philandering was known to all in the Washington press corps, but was ignored until the Dukakis campaign exploited the information...
...The Republican candidate for president must unite, not divide, a Republican coalition that still has some laggards in it-and that will take some skill...
...The CEO (Congress) gets to decide how money is spent, the Treasurer (the president) simply Grover G. Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform...
...3. Return this form to us at the address listed below...
...Republicans must remember, however, while devaluing the presidency, not to treat it with complete disregard...
...The tremendous success of the Contract With America ensures there will be another one in 1996, when the Senate will surely insist on being an equal partner with the House in writing its terms...
...Liberals hope to govern from the presidency as Reagan did-against another party in control of the Congress...
...Nixon defeated New York Gov...
...Just be sure to allow six weeks for your change to take effect...
...The next Republican president will be more the Treasurer of the company rather than the Chief Executive Officer...
...IMPORTANT Allow six weeks for address change...
...he can threaten to veto...
...Potentially embarrassing Republicans would be shot down by a press that does not cover up for GOP contenders what it regularly overlooks in Democrats...
...Morris, Illinois 61054 (Please attach address label here...
...That tears a chunk out of the Democratic coalition of government workers and tax recipients...
...Ed Rollins argues it cost Republicans twenty-six seats in the House...
...Nowadays, the remaining anti-conservatives on Capitol Hill-such as John Chaffee, Jim Jeffords, Sherry Boehlert, and Steve Horn-are a dwindling minority...
...The American Spectator Subscriber Service P.O...
...Clinton can veto tax cuts and deregulatory laws, but not budget cuts...
...But the press bias in favor of the Democrats ultimately hurts them by failing to "scrub" their candidates...
...The struggle between elite, liberal easterners and populist conservatives has finally been decided in favor of the latter: the days of the Lodges and Rockefellers are over...
...2. Attach the mailing label from your most recent issue...
...Hence the vicious trashing of each presidential contender for the crime of losing: Carter in 1980, Mondale in 1984, and Dukakis in 1988...
...0 Renew my subscription for 1 one year (twelve issues-$35) I O Payment enclosed 1 0 Bill me later 1 IName (Phase P,in): I IAddress: 13 city: IState: Zip: I IDate of change: L J Belt, confirmed by Ronald Reagan in 1980 after a final hurrah for Gerald Ford in 1976...
...Bill Clinton's personal life was known to every reporter with sources in Arkansas...
...Republicans have an advantage in this department, as the establishment press in Washington will thoroughly vet any Republican candidate for personal and political failings...
...With longer terms, senators elected before Reagan have of course turned over more slowly than pre-Reagan House members...
...Box 657, Mt...
...In the Senate, it was not until after the 1994 elections that one could speak of an ideologically conservative majority in the Republican caucus...
...signs the checks...
...The liberal ascendancy began with Thomas Dewey in 1944 and continued with 55 The American Spectator March 1995 Dwight Eisenhower's defeat of conservative Ohio senator Robert Taft in 1952...
...Ronald Reagan stretched to embrace the entire conservative coalition: small businessmen, taxpayers, traditional values conservatives, pro- lifers, gun owners, right-to-work supporters...
...96 Cheers Since the "inauguration" of Speaker Gingrich and Majority Leader Dole, the most frequently asked question in Republican circles in Washington has been, "Who should be the candidate for president in 1996...
...This is a quadrennial favor the three networks, the Washington Post, and the New York Times provide the party free of charge...
...And Clinton won't be able to do a thing about it...
...1A 1 0 Sam r T 11119 Republican success in the midterm elections was evidence of a sea change in the party...
...In 1988 Bush ran as Reagan redux and gave the party the "Read my lips anti-tax position...
Vol. 28 • March 1995 • No. 3
