House minority leader John Boehner started his press conference on January 15 sounding like a teenage girl who had just found out that her boyfriend like totally hooked up with her best friend.
“Oh. My. God.”
Before he continued, Boehner glanced at the talking points prepared for his statement on the $825 billion stimulus package proposed by Democrats in the House of Representatives. “My notes here say that I’m disappointed.” He was looking for something stronger. “I just can’t tell you how shocked I am at what we’re seeing. It’s clear that they’re moving on this path along the flawed notion that we can borrow and spend our way to prosperity.”
Boehner asked how NASA was going to spend $400 million fighting global warming, if ACORN would qualify for community development grants, and whether federal money should be used for waterslides. He wondered why taxpayers were providing handouts to universities with billion-dollar endowments.
“I want to know how digital TV coupons are going to stimulate our economy,” he said, pointing out a Democratic proposal to help citizens who still watch television using an antenna convert to digital next month. “I just read last week that 94 percent of the people who needed a converter for their digital–to receive their digital signal–had already gotten it. And so if there’s only 6 percent of American TVs that still need these, how could we possibly spend $650 million on this?” It’s a good argument. How indeed?
Boehner saved his greatest outrage for last, though. With their proposal, House Democrats are apparently failing to support Barack Obama’s efforts to change Washington.
It’s an interesting strategic play. Obama has certainly given many indications over the course of this transition that he would like to govern as a centrist. And congressional Democrats, a very liberal bunch, have expressed their concerns, often publicly. So Boehner, leader of a very conservative group of House Republicans, declares that Obama is promising change he can believe in.
“The president-elect really does want to change the way Washington works,” Boehner explained to the small gathering of reporters.
While congressional Democrats are calling for the “same-old, same-old,” he said, the new president offers hope for a new tone in Washington. “We’re going to work with him to try to prove that Washington can work differently, because in this time of economic anxiety the American people expect us to work together.”
Does Boehner actually believe what he’s saying?
He seems to. He provided similar assurances to me two days earlier in his office at the Capitol. “The president has made it pretty clear that he wants to work with us,” Boehner said. “I’ve talked to him several times. I’ve talked to his staff a number of times. And I truly do believe he’s sincere about this.”
It is the kind of hopeful bipartisan talk you would expect from Susan Collins, a moderate Republican senator from a state Obama won by 23 points, or Chuck Hagel, the retired Republican senator whose pseudo-centrism has made him a favorite on the Sunday talk shows. But John Boehner? If he leads in this direction, will his caucus follow?
And what about Senate Republicans? In an interview in his Capitol Hill office on Friday, I asked minority leader Mitch McConnell if he shares Boehner’s optimism. The Kentucky Republican said that he, too, had found his early interactions with Obama “impressive” and gave the Obama team “good marks for openness, candor. But in the end,” he says, “they will get Republican votes if they adopt Republican policies.”
He added:
McConnell acknowledges that Obama will be able to push most of his agenda through Congress without the support of Republicans. But if he does so, he risks looking like he’s been “co-opted” by the leftwing of his party–not a good result for someone who campaigned on bridging partisan divides.
Take the stimulus package. “Republicans tend to like the fact that they’re saying up to 40 percent of it may be tax relief,” notes McConnell. “But the question is what kind of tax relief. If it’s called tax relief and it’s really just a spending program then it’s really just a bait-and-switch.”
Boehner, though, is already following through on Obama’s request for input. He asked Eric Cantor, the House minority whip, to solicit ideas for the stimulus that he could present to the incoming president. At hearings Thursday–the kind of pretend hearings you can hold when you’re in the minority–Republican legislators heard from Mitt Romney and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, among others, who not surprisingly presented policies that the House Republicans could pass along to the Obama administration. And Friday, Boehner, Cantor, and Republican Conference chairman Mike Pence did just that, sending a letter to Obama to report on the proceedings:
The letter ended with a bottom-line statement of basic principles.
To do that, Obama would have to move toward the Republicans in a serious, substantive way.
It is quite a moment. While Republicans are embracing Obama, Democrats are expressing skepticism. Harry Reid says he doesn’t “work for Obama.” David Obey called Obama a “crown prince.” Barbara Boxer insisted they weren’t “potted plants.” Barney Frank wants him to challenge Republicans–actually, Frank called it fighting the “savage beast.” Bill Nelson called Obama’s comments on the economy “mumbo jumbo.”
The top House Republican is sounding positively senatorial. The Senate minority leader is offering the blunt, matter-of-fact assessment we expect to have from the leader of the House. It should be an interesting hundred days.
Stephen F. Hayes, a senior writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD, is the author of Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President (HarperCollins).
