Redstate

(Nancy's House is Out of Order.)

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Congress — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

As part of the House GOP leadership, Congressman Roy Blunt of Missouri is one of the men standing between Nancy and America-her-way. I spoke to him by telephone this afternoon for a few minutes, just to get a sense of how things are going.; after all, we read the constant feed of media reports telling us of various Republicans splintering in various directions because of dissatisfaction with this or that. One has to imagine that being in the Congressional minority, as the House Republicans found themselves after the last election, especially non-stop Nancy, Rahm, Rangel, etc.

It is August of 2007, so I did not ask him about the Presidential race. In that important way, this differed from the standard Mainstream Media interview, where he might have been asked – were this Meet the Press -- if he were considering a run for the Republican nomination.

I asked Congressman Blunt how they were holding up in minority, how the party was doing for unity. He told me that being in the majority was better, but he wasn't thinking only in terms of his job. It was better for the country when the Republicans were in charge, he explained, because we were safe from the reckless nature of the Democrats: taxes, regulation, and spending. But the GOP minority are learning from being in the minority.

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CASE IN POINT: The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) program being debated by the House now. The Democrats have lost the limits, Congressman Blunt told me. It switches children from private insurance to the public dole and covers families whose earnings are significantly above the poverty line. It would insure illegal aliens, he added. This is not what the program was to do, and it is the first step toward a government-run, Hillarycare health system.

I mentioned Jim Clyburn's admission to the WashPost's dot-com that 47 of his Blue Dogs could peel if General Petraeus comes back with a good report. It's important, then, that the Republicans stay united for victory. How does that look? Congressman Blunt replied that it looked great. The Republicans are unified, including having some members who had voted the other way returning to the fold. He is hopeful that the report will be positive and that the troops will be supported without a timetable.

I noted that the Democrats have managed their minimum wage bill, named a dozen post offices, and put forward countless resolutions dealing with the President and with Iraq. I asked Congressman Blunt how he thought they were doing with their majority and how he would grade their majority. He said that he would grade them by saying that the Democrats are "politically shortsighted." People are getting a glimpse at what they do, what they are about, and that won't serve them well politically. The Congressman told me that the Democratic majority have put 27 bills before the President: two (including the C.R.) to keep the government operating, ten Iraq bills, and fifteen bills which… well, he couldn't describe them to me. He isn't sure what they were, he said; no one is but perhaps the people who sent them to the President.

The Democrats are the party of defeat, the Congressman told me. Listening to Jim Clyburn, their number three guy, talk, the Democrats have banked everything on defeat. In order for the Democrats to be successful, the mission must fail. That's a tough position to find yourself in, he observed.

Looking back, though, if I would have had more time – and been a little less nervous – I'd have liked to have asked him more about these fifteen (15) Mystery Bills. Omnibus black holes?

Finally, running out of time, I asked him quickly if he thinks being in the minority has pushed Congressional Republicans back toward their conservatism. (He thinks it has.) And I asked him if he's looking forward to working with a new crop of Freshman Republicans in 2009. Congressman Blunt sounded enthused when he talked about the future, working with the new freshman Republicans to do the nation's business. He said the House Republicans are learning and getting better every day. "In politics as in hockey," he told me, "there is a reason for the penalty box."

And that is what has happened. The Congressman observed that the election of 2006 was not about people voting for the Democrats and their notions and schemes; no, it was a move away from the status quo, from what the Republicans were not doing right. The Democrats were not rewarded so much as the Republicans were penalized. And if I may borrow his hockey metaphor, the Republicans are now playing shorthanded and they are learning from it, Congressman Blunt promises. When they return to full strength – all men on the ice = back in the majority – they can do great things. That's what I took from our brief talk.

Congressman Blunt thinks that what the Democrats are doing now, and what they are not doing, is helping the Republicans politically. (He mentioned their approval rating, the lowest in its recorded history.) He could be promising a new dawn, the likes of which we haven't seen since Newt and his Freshman took the House in 1995. Or when President Reagan moved to Washington in 1981.