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Yesterday’s politico covers two related stories of interest to conservatives. Both pieces tell the story of a Republican Party taking steps to return to its fiscal conservative roots.

In the first, we read about a Party tacking rightward on fiscal issues. Formerly the skunks at the party, stalwart fiscal conservatives are being brought back into the fold:

Whether it was Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) filibustering on earmarks or Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) making a late-night speech about runaway government spending, the conservative caucus had a sympathetic ear from GOP leaders yet rarely prevailed on strategy or party message.

But now that they’ve been thrust into the minority, the conservative agitators have a front-row seat with Republican leaders, and the number of lawmakers who describe themselves as conservatives continues to grow while moderates appear to be a dying breed among Republicans on Capitol Hill.

In the second story we learn that the Senate GOP Leadership team has finally taken a cue from their House counterparts and begun to target egregious pork projects tucked away in massive government spending bills:

A multilevel operation aimed at harnessing the power of the Internet represents the most coordinated attack yet on earmarks, considered a cornerstone of legislative dealmaking for the way they have been used to induce votes and curry favor with supporters.

Once the domain of a few ostracized junior senators, earmark targeting is now in vogue, with Senate Republican leaders eager to gain traction in the minority.

Again, the formerly shunned principled conservatives in the Senate are now in fashion…sort of. 

Read on . . .

The strategy employed by the Coburns and DeMints of the Senate is only being partially adopted by their leadership. Whereas Coburn and DeMint have been relentlessly attacking wasteful and corrupting earmarks no matter who their author or where they originate (House, Senate or Conference Committee), Senate GOP leadership appears content at this stage in the game at least, to play it safe by attacking only House earmarks that are requested by Democrats (nevermind that the poster child for wasteful pork barrel spending was the “Bridge to Nowhere” – a Republican request).

While this strategy is a step in the right direction, it leaves Republicans open to very legitimate counterattacks pointing out a still pervasive GOP addiction to porky projects.

The strategy also leaves the GOP open to criticism of crass political gamesmanship. Having correctly diagnosed the public’s disgust with wasteful spending, the GOP leadership has decided to play the pork card, but not against their own pork.

If the GOP cannot bring itself to address its own complicity in the shell game that is the wasteful and corrupting congressional earmarking process, how can voters – or perhaps more importantly – the Party’s conservative base, believe that its leadership has turned the corner on the issue of spending?

This is not to say that the exercise is useless.

It is very useful as an internal exercise in which earmarking Republicans are conditioned to vote against wasteful pork projects – a vote they have hitherto been loath to cast. Think of it as training wheels. A select few in the GOP leadership understand this, and for this reason they are content to adopt the half-hearted exercise despite its drawbacks.

But further complicating the congressional GOP’s rebranding effort is the flat out refusal by some in the Party to support the President now that he has finally drawn a line in the sand on spending.

When powerful GOP appropriators lead the charge against the President’s veto of a pork-laden bloated water projects spending bill, the message is undermined. When the Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee endorses the liberal State Children’s Health Insurance bill, better known as HillaryCare Stage One, the message is diluted. And worse than diluting the message, this behavior creates an opening for the critics.

Sarah Feinberg, the spokeswoman for the House Democrat Caucus skewered the GOP’s rightward movement telling the Politico “Republicans can’t try to make fiscal responsibility their mantle when they are responsible for turning record surpluses into record deficits.”

“They can’t whine about earmarks when earmarks exploded under their leadership…”

Of course this silly Democrat is misguided, as she misses the point entirely.

There is indeed room for a reformed Republican Party to score political points on these issues. The public is looking for leaders who will say no to pork barrel spending and who will govern from a fiscally responsible position. What she should have criticized Republicans for was their past complicity in the Democrats’ inexorable drive towards bigger government.

If the training wheels work and the GOP can begin to rein in the appetite of its appropriators for unending earmarks, the Sarah Feinberg’s of the world will have no retort the next time Republicans expose Democrat earmarks for hippies.

Until then, GOP victories on earmark amendments will only be a fraction as politically powerful as they could be.