The Majority: when will they start acting like one?
The good news is the GOP has the majority in both houses of Congress, and the executive branch.
The bad news is few of the Conservative principles that many of these people ran on are being displayed.
In recent weeks, we've seen scant evidence that the elected majority remember the philosophy of those who more than contributed to their election. We saw a Congress happily passing a bloated transportation spending bill, and President Bush signing it. Yesterday we witnessed President Bush signing an energy bill which he admits falls far short of his expectations, does not begin ANWAR drilling, and provides the modicum of feel-good energy policy of extending the now archaic daylight savings.
Ann Coulter criticized the President over not using any of his well-earned capital in nominating Judge John Roberts for the Supreme Court. Do not get her (nor me) wrong: I believe that Judge Roberts will be a fine Justice; but when there are so many more potential nominees whose pedigree is so clearly Conservative, taking a safer choice seems to deny your core. Case in point: what if for some reason John Roberts isn't confirmed (and for the life of me, I cannot think of any legitimate reason any Democrat would steadfastly deny his nomination): what then? Does President Bush choose any even weaker Conservative? Here's hoping the next SCOTUS nominations (perhaps as many as 4 more) will be even closer to the likes of Justice Scalia and Thomas.
What the GOP needs is a standard bearer, someone to rise above the fray (of both sides) and say what he means. President Bush has often done that in the past, and while I believe his remains the president this nation needs (clearly head-and-shoulders above the rest in the last two elections), he too often softens his message. He should take a page from the playbook of Newt Gingrich, who knows well how to articulate a message and stay on point.
In the meantime, the GOP needs to remember they are in the majority, they have a clear mandate, and they should use it.
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