The Republican Congress has attracted a lot of enemies, but none so visceral as two old Nixonians, Kevin Phillips and Herbert Stein. A recent Phillips broadside in the Los Angeles Times called the current Congress the worst in half a century; things would only improve, he said, when Newt Gingrich was dethroned and Democrats regained control. In the New York Times, Stein argued that “responsible” Republicans (going back to Ike) understand the need to raise taxes. What’s striking about Phillips/Stein opposition is the tone. Stein has dropped his usual amused and whimsical voice and adopted one that is hectoring and scornful. It almost seems personal. Surely the Nixon veterans couldn’t expect all Republicans to live up to the high standards of the Nixon domestic policy, which gave us wage and price controls, expanded the welfare state, and laid the groundwork for stagflation.
