The FlashReport’s Beltway Correspondent, Congressman John Campbell, has just endorsed Congressman Mike Pence for House Republican Leader. We will follow his lead as a publication, and I want to announce that the FlashReport endorses Mike Pence for Republican Leader of the House of Representatives.
We have been following, and applauding the conservative moxie of Pence for a couple of years now, since he took over the reigns of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative caucus within the entire GOP conference.
When Republicans take the kind of drubbing they took last Tuesday, the honorable thing to do is for the existing leadership TEAM (yes, all of them, not some of them) to step aside and let new leaders emerge to try and win policy and political battles in the next session and election. Unfortunately we have a couple of leaders in the House — John Boehner and Roy Blunt — who are suffering from a classic case of "it wasn’t me" syndrome. I have news for both of these Congressman who occupy two of the highest leadership posts — YES, IT WAS YOU. I could spend a whole lot of time listing out all of the things that Republicans did to squander our mandate to lead the Congress — but we’ll highlight just on the main offense — Republicans became the big spenders that they had been elected to replace. Instead of scaling back the federal government, with the idea that the people, or levels of government that were closer to the people could better spend money than the federal government, Republicans have presided over massive growth in the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy.
Boehner and Blunt aren’t solely to blame — but when you run for and are elected to House Leadership, it is good news and bad news. The good news is that they have a larger than normal say in matters of policy and politics than other members. They also can rightfully take more credit than others for victories. The bad news is that when things don’t go so well, they shoulder the lion’s share the blame. At least that’s the way it is supposed to work — but Boehner and Blunt didn’t get the memo.
So what happens if a majority of House Republicans re-elect either of these Congressmen to House Leadership? An immediate lack of credibility is created at a time when that is the one commodity that is going to be needed to re-energize GOP voters and conservative activists like me. You see, House Republicans HAVE NO CREDIBILITY with me right now — because their rhetoric about limited government and liberty has not been matched with GOP votes. I can point to budget after budget after budget after budget that grows government. If Boehner or Blunt go on Fox News to tell me their counter-point to Pelosi, I won’t be able to believe them. Why? Because they were on the command deck helping Hastert and Delay steer the HMS Titanic into the iceberg.
What is needed are real leaders — like Indian’s Mike Pence and Arizona’s John Shadegg — these are Members of Congress who had the courage to buck the House Leadership and decry the big government spending of the House Republicans. They were there on the floor of the House, unfortunately but accurately predicting that we would end up where we are now.
I had an opportunity to participate in an exclusive conference call with Representative Pence this morning, and let me tell you, he is the real deal. If we want someone who has the energy, the commitment and the CREDIBILITY to be a messenger to bring disaffected GOP voters and conservative activists back into the fold — he’s the guy.
On the call, I asked him if Republicans in the Conference really understood that it was their own largess that created a large part of the political situation that led to losing the House. I was heartened when Pence told us that every single Congressman to whom he has spoken in recent days has acknowledged that the GOP embrace of spending ended up playing a major role in the loss of Congress.
I encourage all FR readers to call their Congressman (if he or she is a Republican) or if not, call your nearest Republican Congressman’s office — and urge them to support Mike Pence for House Republican Leader.
Mike Pence isn’t perfect. Just ask him. He is a humble man and he will tell you about his faults. But, the FlashReport feels he is the perfect candidate for House Minority Leader.
If Pence is elected, it means that House Republicans are serious about taking back the majority and doing something with it that will make those of us on the outside proud of them. If they shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic, promoting a current leader that should, like Hastert, be stepping down, then it means that we have further to fall before we can recover.
So I encourage all FR readers and especially our California Republicans to join with Congressman Campbell, and the FlashReport, and support Mike Pence!
November 15th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Good move, Jon – and not just because Pence is a fellow Hoosier. He’s free of the taint that affects Boehner and some of the others and his views are conservative without being oppressive. If he’s a little too soft on illegal immigration for some, consider that a fair trade for getting some much-needed new blood into our leadership.