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Jewish World Review / Nov. 6, 1998 /17 Mar-Cheshvan, 5759
Cal Thomas
Hulk Hogan for president?
FOR REPUBLICANS, IT'S MOURNING IN AMERICA.
They failed to beat the point spread. They tried sitting on their lead. They were
afraid, and fear struck them out. Or, if you prefer a wrestling
analogy (which is now fashionable, given the victory of Jesse
"The Body" Ventura in the Minnesota governor's race), some
Republicans got body slammed.
Republicans incorrectly believed that the Clinton "scandal''
would make up for their timidity and refusal to confront the
president's bad ideas with better ideas. Instead of an updated
Contract With America, they came up with a non-strategy
and a cave-in in California.
To expand their congressional base, Republicans
needed a positive agenda and a perception of vision. What
happened to the GOP's bread-and-butter issues of tax cuts,
smaller government, school choice and private retirement
accounts? Republicans served up no-fat butter substitutes
instead of the real stuff.
In sports, as in politics, momentum counts. While Republicans
held the status quo in the Senate and maintained their
majority by a slimmer margin in the House, they haven't had
momentum since 1994. They quickly squandered it by
moving too fast and proclaiming a "revolution.''
The biggest loser in this election is the so-called "Religious
Right.'' The Christian Coalition's Randy Tate had boldly
proclaimed this off-year contest as a referendum on the
morality of Bill Clinton. If it was, it means most people either
consider him moral, by the low standards of politics, or they
don't care. Given its poor showing this year, the Christian
Coalition will find it difficult to wield much power in 2000.
With so many early presidential primaries, their resources and
personnel will be spread wafer-thin. Probably no
pro-abortion candidate will be nominated, and the GOP is
unlikely to select someone for whom this is a front-burner
issue. It will do whatever is necessary to win back the White
House. If the Christian Coalition wants to have real impact, it
should contemplate what it means to be truly Christian and
focus less on political coalitions. Why bring God down to
"Caesar's'' level?
Congressional Republicans, if they want to regain their
momentum, must immediately launch an ambitious program
of substantial tax cuts and education opportunities patterned
after the privately funded school-choice models now popular
in several major cities. Properly crafted, school choice might
break the chokehold Democrats have on the black vote.
If House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott cannot lead on these and other issues unique to
Republicans, they should either step aside or be removed.
House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt told me he doesn't
think that will happen because "no one can raise money or
put forth ideas for Republicans like Newt.'' What ideas? There
weren't any from Republicans in this election. And money
without ideas is like a sports car with no gas. Ideas drive
politics, and while Republicans outspent Democrats, their
ideological tank appears nearly empty.
Republicans should abandon their strategy to "get'' Bill
Clinton. It hasn't worked and, barring some unlikely discovery
by the House Judiciary Committee, Clinton is going to finish
his second term. Republicans need to put together an agenda
that doesn't mimic the Democrats' and that will keep Al Gore
from becoming president while they hold on to Congress. As
publisher and likely presidential candidate Steve Forbes
noted: "Republicans should have learned by now that you
must give people compelling reasons to vote for you.
Mealy-mouthed rhetoric is no substitute for a muscular,
substantive agenda.''
Mock Gov.-elect Jesse Ventura if you like, but look at his
agenda. He wants to cut taxes ("give us our money back''),
reduce the size and presence of government and improve
education, not necessarily by spending more money on failing
public schools. He's a libertarian, but he connected with
people.
Perhaps Republicans need someone like Ventura to speak for
them. Is Hulk Hogan
They thought that giving the
president virtually everything he wanted in the budget bill and
not allowing the government to shut down again would
entice voters to increase Republican congressional majorities.
It didn't.
Ventura on election night
11/03/98: Clinton's greatest peril isn't Monica
10/30/98: Mother Teresa was right about killing
10/27/98: Clinton to Netanyahu: 'You're despicable'
10/21/98: A 'peace' agreement: Wye not?
10/19/98: Vanity Fair snubs some of the greatest women 'leaders'
10/14/98:The mean machine
10/09/98: Impeachment: an outside perspective
10/07/98: The corruption of the Secret Service
10/02/98: Land erosion in Israel
10/01/98: The race panel: lies in black and white
9/18/98: The Clinton strategy and the Clinton legacy
9/18/98: Stopping him before he sins again
9/15/98: Repenting when the end is near
9/11/98: Faithfully executing: Congress vs. the President
9/10/98: The degrees of separation between Dan Burton and Bill Clinton
9/08/98: Joe Lieberman and the Democrats' conscience
9/04/98: Clinton vs. Reagan and the struggle for power
9/02/98: If only Bubba had been a Boy Scout
8/31/98: Liberal clergy and the Lewinsky affair
8/27/98: Combating the terrorists among us
8/25/98: The president as 'Chicken Little'
8/20/98: That was no apology
8/18/98: Big government's crab grab
8/14/98:Untruths, half-truths and anything but the
truth
8/12/98: Lying under oath: past and present impeachable offenses
8/10/98: Endangered species
8/04/98: In search of an unstained president
7/31/98: The UK is ahead of US in one area...
7/28/98: Murder near and far
7/21/98: Telling the truth about
homosexual behavior
7/17/98: One Nation? Indivisible?
7/14/98: Who cares about killing when the 'good times' are rolling?
7/10/98: George W. Bush: a different 'boomer'
7/08/98: My lunch with Roy Rogers
7/06/98: News unfit to print (or broadcast)
6/30/98: Smoke gets in their eyes
6/25/98: Sugar and Spice Girls
6/19/98: William Perry opposed
technology transfers to China
6/19/98: The Clinton hare vs.the Starr tortoise
6/17/98: The President's rocky road to China
6/15/98: Let the children go
6/9/98: Oregon: the new killing fields
6/5/98: Speaking plainly: the cover-up continues
6/2/98: Barry Goldwater: in our hearts
5/28/98:The Speaker's insightful remarks
5/26/98: As bad as it gets
5/25/98:Union dues and don'ts
5/21/98:
Connecting those Chinese campaign
contribution dots
5/19/98: Clinton on the couch
5/13/98:
John Ashcroft: another
Jimmy Carter?
5/8/98: Terms of dismemberment
5/5/98: Clinton's tangled Webb
4/30/98: Return of the Jedi
4/28/98: Desparately seeking Susan
4/23/98: RICO's threat to free-speech and expression
4/21/98: Educating children v. preserving an institution
4/19/98: Analyzing the birth of a possible new nation
4/14/98: What's fair about our tax system?
4/10/98: CBS: 'Touched by a perv'
4/8/98: Judge Wright's wrong reasoning on sexual harassment
4/2/98: How about helping American cities before African?
3/31/98:Revenge of the children
3/29/98: The Clinton strategy: delay, deceive, deny, and destroy
3/26/98: Moralist Gary Hart
3/23/98: CNN's century of (liberal) women
3/17/98: Dandy Dan
3/15/98: An imposed 'settlement' settles nothing
3/13/98: David Brock's Turnabout