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Christian Science Monitor
Dec 10, 2004
In House, a band of new rebels
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ADVOCATE FOR SUBURBIA:
Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois, a GOP moderate, flew Navy intelligence
missions in the Persian Gulf War as well as Bosnia, and Haiti.
ALLEN KALETA/AP/FILE |
WASHINGTON - After dubbing President Bush's "open door"
border policy a threat to national security, Rep. Tom Tancredo says,
he got a call from Bush aide Karl Rove proposing that he never again
"darken the doorstep of the White House." He's glad that
the non-invite apparently didn't extend to the annual congressional
Christmas party.
"It means a lot to my wife," quips the third-term Colorado
Republican, who attended the White House event Monday.
There's no question that a public rift with a Republican president
is a tough career move for any aspiring GOP lawmaker. But for
Mr. Tancredo, who came to the House after running a libertarian
think tank in Golden, Colo., standing up for ideas is what politics
is about - and for him, no policy is more vital than controlling
borders and ending the "cult of multiculturalism" that
sees the US as "groups of victimized classes."
This week, he joined 66 other House Republicans who voted against
intelligence reforms over the issue of border-security. They didn't
prevail, but their opposition slowed action on the measure and
showed that some GOP lawmakers are ready to wield a new level
of assertiveness in Bush's second term.
That doesn't mean the president faces an open revolt from within
his party, but there is a new restiveness in Republican ranks
on issues ranging from Social Security reform to national defense
and the budget deficit. The new voices aren't the biggest names
in the party. Some haven't been around long enough to bang a gavel.
And party isn't their first loyalty.
"I'll never have any institutional power," Tancredo
says. "I'll never be given a chairmanship. The only two things
I have are my voice and my vote, and I have to use them as effectively
as I can."
Before the Nov. 2 election, some would-be naysayers downplayed
rifts with the White House, largely because they didn't want to
see a Democrat naming Supreme Court Justices. Now, with President
Bush heading into a second term, they're drawing lines in the
sand for the 109th Congress, in which the GOP will enjoy a 29-seat
House margin.
Take Rep. Mike Pence. The two-term Indiana lawmaker shot to celebrity
among conservative activists after standing up to pressure from
the White House and GOP House leaders during an epic 2003 Medicare
vote that stretched out to nearly three, bone-crunching hours.
More than 70 conservatives signed a petition against the bill.
In the end only 25, including Pence, voted to defeat it.
"He is one of those people who is respected because he will
always vote his principles, as irritating as that may be to some
of the Republican leadership in the House," says Richard
Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union,
which invited Pence to be the keynote speaker that winter.
A talk radio host before coming to Congress, Pence resists pressure
with conspicuous grace. "He is animated by, informed by,
and motivated by his religious faith and his conservatism,"
says attorney Greg Garrison, who took over Pence's show when he
moved to Washington.
After only four years on Capitol Hill, the Indiana lawmaker was
just elected to chair the influential Republican Study Committee.
With about 100 members (complete headcounts are never released),
the RSC is "the majority of the majority," Pence says,
citing Speaker Dennis Hastert's formula that most Republicans
must support a bill before it can move to the floor. He expects
to have a say in what moves in the new Congress, and is signaling
that Bush cannot count on a rubber stamp from House conservatives.
"House conservatives must rally support in Congress and
the country for President Bush's agenda where it conforms to the
ideals of limited government," he wrote last month. But they
must also "undo" much of the 2001 campaign finance reform
act, roll back the entitlement elements of the Medicare prescription-drug
law, and reverse the federal role in education advanced in the
No Child Left Behind Act, the president's signature domestic program,
he urged. Unlike previous RSC chairs, Pence resigned his party
role as deputy whip to avoid "serving two masters."
Rep. Jeff Flake (R) of Arizona is another potential breakaway
- on the issue of fiscal policy. Formerly with a think tank and
lobbying group, Mr. Flake in his two terms has voted against a
bigger federal role in education, the creation of a Homeland Security
Department, farm subsidies, and most annual appropriations bills.
Recently, he has attacked pork projects so relentlessly that GOP
Rep. John Peterson summoned groundhog celebrity Punxsutawney Phil
to Capitol Hill this week to defend his $100,000 earmark for a
weather museum in Punxsutawney, Pa. - and invited Flake to attend.
(He did.) The earmark was one of $25 billion in pork spending
in the $322 billion omnibus spending measure signed by Bush this
week.
GOP moderates, who played a big role reining in the Bush agenda
on tax cuts and energy policy in the Senate, are also gearing
up for a more vigorous role in the 109th Congress. The Republican
Main Street Partnership counts 12 senators and at least 50 House
members. They are planning a push to support fiscal restraint
and stem-cell research that could put them at odds with Bush.
Rep. Mark Kirk (R) of Illinois, a cochair of the moderate Tuesday
Group, says "The agenda I have is to reorient the work of
the Congress to more accurately reflect the problems facing people
in the suburbs." He also plans to push Republicans to get
back to their Teddy Roosevelt roots in the environmental movement.
As a student in Britain, he worked as an aide in the House of
Commons and saw "Soviet-style" party loyalty up close.
"The overwhelming loyalty of a member of Congress should
be not to a party platform but to their state and the people in
it," says the former Navy intelligence officer, still active
as a reservist.
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