The Secret History of the Republican Party

The news that Marco Rubio's staff will be led by former Romney policy director Sally Canfield, brings up some forgotten GOP history.

Ben Smith posted yesterday a document that turns the spade on a lot of hastily buried Republican history.

It has to be read in full to be appreciated:

Marco Rubio just announced a staff led by Mitt Romney's former policy director, Sally Canfield, and a reader sends over Canfield's spirited November, 2007 defense of Romneycare -- which now reads like a relic of a forgotten Republican era:

It should be a shock to no one who believes in deregulation and individual choice that premiums are falling as competition is introduced into the health care market. As a result, today, in Massachusetts, residents can obtain comprehensive, quality health care insurance for as little as $175 a month.

In bringing free-market forces to Massachusetts, Governor Romney has won the praise of conservative organizations. One of the primary supporters of the Massachusetts plan was the Heritage Foundation. They have said, "Those who want to create a consumer-based health system and deregulate health insurance should view Romney's plan as one of the most promising strategies out there." The Club for Growth stated that "Governor Romney deserves credit for proposing a plan that encourages individually-owned health insurance…"

It's the third paragraph that deserves to be reposted in red letters. The Heritage Foundation was more than just a "supporter" of the Massachusetts plan. It was to a great extent an author of the plan.

It would be easy to score "for it before they were against it" points here. But the real - and more exciting point - is this: policy creativity can and does exist in the Republican party. The next task is to nurture that creativity back to life. Here's hoping that the brainy Canfield can help develop the Rubio office into a lively center of that dormant creativity.

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