They just don’t get it. For people beyond the Potomac to begin seeing congressional Republicans differently, congressional Republicans must start acting differently. Handing out press releases promising to change Washington with one hand while accepting earmarks with the other hand is a sure way to stay in the minority.
So what do they do? House Republicans defeat a motion by House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and new House Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia telling GOP members not to request earmarks between now and Feb. 16, a mere three months.
But Rep. Todd Tihart of Kansas, a stout advocate of earmarks, offered a motion to strike the Boehner/Cantor proposal and the caucus approved it. The GOP caucus defeated a proposed earmark ban last year, too.
Incredibly, Boehner lamely commented afterward, according to Congressional Quarterly, that “I’m not sure the moratorium would have had that much impact.” If that was true, what was the point of offering it in the first place? In other words, Boehner and Cantor offered a meaningless gesture, which tells us yet again that the House GOP isn’t ready to regain majority status.
And they never will so long as they don’t understand that a GOP caucus unanimously rejecting earmarks would be exactly the kind of tangible demonstration – doing something differently – needed to give voters reasons to return Republicans to power.
