GOP Caucus Pans Pledge
Jon Ward reports:
House Republicans have been relatively successful this week at presenting a united front around their “Pledge to America, ” but only through a strategic outreach campaign to lawmakers, media and outside groups, that has managed to keep deep dissatisfaction over several key issues largely under wraps.
Still, interviews with Republican aides reveal that many in the span style="color: green;">GOP< caucus are unhappy that there was no earmark ban and no promise to pass a balanced budget amendment in the proposal, which was unveiled Thursday by House Minority Leader John Boehner. The inclusion of a health insurance provision considered to be mandate angered many conservative lawmakers.
“We’re going to repeal Obamacare and then bring a large chunk of it back. It’s kind of crazy,” said a senior Republican official.
And social conservative leaders said that a commitment to upholding the Defense of Marriage Act was dropped at the last moment.
“They kept talking about realism. They wanted it to be realistic, something we could do, not pipe dreams,” said one House aide who said that while leadership sought extensive input, they threw many of the ideas they received “in the trash heap.”
In addition, a 21-page proposal requiring all legislation to be posted online for 72 hours prior to a vote was not distributed to Republican lawmakers until the night before the rollout. Many span style="color: green;">Republican< offices didn’t even see it until it leaked to the media Wednesday afternoon, leading one aide to write in an e-mail to fellow legislative directors: “We shouldn’t have to get our own agenda from CBS News.”
But skittish rank-and-file members were reassured at a Wednesday night caucus meeting by leadership aides who distributed a National Review editorial praising the “Pledge.” The National Review editorial had been prearranged, however, by Neil Bradley, a top leadership aide* who is close to April Ponnuru, the executive director of the National Review Institute, and Kate O’Beirne, NRI’s president.
“It was a political blowjob,” one Republican aide said of the National Review editorial.
O’Beirne denied the allegation, calling it “absolutely, categorically false.”
