Embattled Republicans Seek to Regain Control of Agenda - New York Times

Embattled Republicans Seek to Regain Control of Agenda - New York TimesOctober 2, 2005
Embattled Republicans Seek to Regain Control of Agenda
By ROBIN TONER and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 - After a brutal political month, Republicans are scrambling both to reassure their conservative base and to send a broader message to the American public - that they are, in fact, confronting the real-world issues of soaring gas prices, Hurricane Katrina relief, Iraq and immigration, while the Democrats are consumed with partisan warfare.

In a range of interviews on Friday, Republicans acknowledged the shock waves of the last few weeks, capped by the indictment of Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, which forced the reorganization of the Republican House leadership even as it struggled to deal with the fallout from Hurricane Katrina.

"It's been a difficult week, I'm not going to sugarcoat it," said Representative David Dreier, the chairman of the Rules Committee, who has assumed new duties in the reshuffling. "We know we've got a big challenge ahead, but we've got an agenda."

Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, agreed. "You get your job done," he said. "You can't panic. Even though our poll numbers are going down, there's no great love for the Democrats, no great support."

There have rarely been more troubled times for the Republican governing majority. The DeLay indictment and President Bush's second-term slump in the polls come amid a host of challenges and problems in domestic and foreign policy, including rising gas prices, the furor over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, and public discontent with the war in Iraq.

Many Republican strategists noted that almost immediately, perhaps as soon as Monday, the White House has the chance to dominate the political debate with the expected announcement of President Bush's second Supreme Court nominee. Some argued that an ideological showdown over that nominee could rally the party's base, underscore divisions among the Democrats that were apparent in the confirmation fight over Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and generally paint the Democrats as beholden to liberal interest groups.

"The debate over the next nominee will do far more to form the battle lines for the '06 midterm elections than anything involving the Congressional leadership," said Bob Stevenson, a spokesman for Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader.

White House officials say the Supreme Court justice selection is only part of a busy domestic agenda for the fall that also includes a series of budget decisions on spending cuts and taxes, plus efforts to lower energy prices and increase supply. All of these issues were discussed at a meeting with the Senate and House Republican leadership at the White House on Thursday.

In the House, top Republicans held a long meeting on Friday morning to divide the majority leader's duties - Mr. DeLay was required to step down from his post after his indictment - and to discuss how to approach the rest of the year. Republican leaders also sat down earlier this week with restive House conservatives to talk about moving ahead on spending cuts, the conservatives' top priority and one of several sources of division in the Republican caucus.

And Republican leaders have scheduled a vote in the House late next week on a bill aimed at expanding refinery output and energy production, a clear response to the festering issue of gas prices.

In addition, administration officials said, the White House is focused on the Oct. 15 election in Iraq, and will push forward in Congress on an immigration bill, regardless of who is the majority leader. "We're not going to be bogged down," said Trent Duffy, the deputy White House press secretary. "The schedule is too full for that to happen."

For all the Republicans' bullishness, much of their agenda has clearly fallen by the wayside, at least for now, notably Mr. Bush's attempt to overhaul Social Security. And Democrats, emboldened, say Republicans underestimate their vulnerabilities.

"Republicans are blinded by their culture of cronyism and corruption," said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. "They're crumbling, arrogantly protecting their power."

Even as they point to Republican failings, Democrats are keenly aware that they "have an obligation to say what we would do differently," as Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, put it. In the coming weeks they plan to push forward with legislation in both the House and the Senate. Democratic strategists say the party is also working toward a unified agenda that it can carry through the 2006 midterms.

For their part, Republican Party leaders say they will continue to highlight Democratic vulnerabilities, beginning with what they assert is a lack of a positive vision for governing. "Their mantra is 'they're corrupt and everything they do is bad,' " Mr. Dreier said. But, he added, "You can't replace something with nothing."

Many Republicans dismissed the idea, cherished by the Democrats, that the nation was headed toward another 1994, a landslide defeat for the Congressional majority, then Democratic. "1994 was about several things," said Bill Paxon, a former top Republican in the House, now a lobbyist. "It was about a whole series of issues that were upsetting to a lot of American voters, particularly Republican base voters who had been disenfranchised."

Moreover, many Republican strategists say that because of redistricting the number of competitive seats in the House for the next election is under three dozen, making it far harder for the Democrats to make big gains.

Still, some Republicans remain dismayed at their party's plight, and some of the strongest assessments come from Republicans with national ambitions. "The Republican Party has taken some real body blows and is on the ropes right now," said Tim Pawlenty, the Republican governor of Minnesota. Because of recent events, he added, "Democrats basically have been keeping their mouth shut and watching as the Republicans kind of implode."

Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, argued that the Republican Party needed to acknowledge the governmental failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina and outline a broad agenda for change. As the party in charge, "We had better be the leader of changing it until it works or we will legitimately be fired as failures," he said.

Other Republicans argued that the political times demanded a little soul-searching. Representative Chris Shays, a Republican moderate from Connecticut, said that the Republican Congress "needed to do a better job of oversight" of the executive branch. "We are not a parliament," he said.

And John C. Danforth, a moderate and former Republican senator from Missouri, argued that the times "call for the Republican Party to recapture the middle of the political spectrum and to do a better job of emphasizing that."

But some Republicans argued that the party needed to recover more of its old aggressiveness. Mr. King said it was an "absolute disgrace" that the Republicans let Mr. Bush take so much criticism - undefended - after Hurricane Katrina. "You've got to fight back," he said. "I think a lot of Republicans have lost their nerve. Being in the majority ten years, we're used to things going our way."

Mr. King warns that the party's base becomes "very disillusioned" when they see Republicans not fighting back.

In fact, Mr. DeLay's indictment this week - and his combative response to it as pure politics - may have done more to galvanize conservatives than to demoralize them.

Soon after hearing the news of the indictment, Gary Bauer, president of the conservative group American Values, called Mr. DeLay's office to assure him of the robust support that awaited him at a planned speech to evangelical supporters of Israel that night. Mr. DeLay showed up, testifying that "I fear no evil," and was roundly cheered.

Still, it is not clear how easily the line-drawing and combativeness that motivates the base can coexist with the Republicans' reach for the center. And the first test of that, many Republicans say, will come with the president's choice of a Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Elisabeth Bumiller and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting from Washington for this article.