Inside Politics

FETING PHILLIPS

Conservative pioneer Howard Phillips, founder 35 years ago of the Conservative Caucus, was honored Wednesday evening by Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican; fundraisers Richard Viguerie and Richard Norman; and a host of other top conservative figures at a gala celebration at an Arlington hotel.

Mr. Phillips became a household name among conservatives in the 1970s and 1980s for spearheading a drive to “defund the left” - barring the federal government from using taxpayer money to subsidize what he called “left-wing activist” organizations.

The Harvard-educated Mr. Phillips came to Washington to head the federal Office of Economic Opportunity under President Nixon, but quickly became disillusioned with moderate Republicanism and eventually broke with the GOP altogether.

He resigned his post when Mr. Nixon failed to kill funding for President Johnson’s Great Society programs and formed the nonpartisan Conservative Caucus.

“In a town where very few are guided by principle, Howard has always followed principle over personal gain or political power,” Mr. Norman told The Washington Times. “It absolutely cost him dearly - politically and otherwise. He could have gone far with his ties to the Nixon administration and Harvard - could have become a wealthy and influential lobbyist.”

Under his leadership, the Conservative Caucus has opposed both Democratic and Republican policies and initiatives - including the Panama Canal Treaty, arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement and World Trade Organization trade pacts.

RED SCARE

“We’ve got a new red scare,” writes Robert L. Borosage, co-director of the liberal Campaign for America’s Future, in the Huffington Post. “Forget Glenn Beck, the fear isn’t that America is going red, it’s that it is in the red.

“Conservatives in both parties are raising alarms about deficits and government spending. Well, get over it. If we are going to generate growth and shared prosperity out of the mess we are in, expanded public investment must be a centerpiece of the new economy….

“Republicans rail against everything Obama, chanting, ’Where are the jobs?’ while calling for rolling back the stimulus, abandoning health care reform, cutting spending and, no surprise, more tax cuts. They seem to have learned nothing from the [economic] crisis. Sure, they claim that they have put aside their fiscally wastrel ways, blaming it all on [President George W.] Bush, and have become born-again fiscal conservatives.

“But this leaves them in the bizarre posture of arguing that ’deficits don’t matter’ when the economy is growing, but are unacceptable when the economy is sinking. Step on the gas when the economy is already racing and on the brake when it is sputtering….

“We’ve done the whole small government, low taxes, deregulation number. We got top-end tax cuts, declining wages, collapsing sewers and gridlock, a ruinous financial casino and global indebtedness through corporate trade policies. The result was growing inequality, a sinking middle class, over a fourth of America’s children in poverty, increasingly destructive climate change, and a harsh financial collapse and recession. It is time to go another way.”

HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES

“Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate have spent the spring, summer and fall grappling with how to fix the health care system. They’re still trying to craft a bill they can sell to Americans - or even explain in plain English,” a Chicago Tribune editorial says.

“And the Republicans? Well, as the minority party, they’re mainly on the sidelines. They’ve become the party of ’no,’ sniping at every Democratic health care reform idea without promoting any of their own. Right?

“Not entirely.

“Over the summer and fall, Republicans in the House and Senate have introduced six - yes, six - health care reform proposals. You didn’t hear? Well, those plans didn’t produce much of a ripple because Democrats dominate the Congress.

“But now Republicans are weighing a shift in strategy. Instead of taking more potshots, some Republicans say their party should present a coherent alternative to whatever final Democratic plans emerge in the House and Senate. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee reportedly are drafting legislation the GOP could introduce when Democrats bring their proposals to the floor.

“Here’s hoping they do. [Illinois Republican] Rep. Mark Kirk, who sponsored a health reform bill, said recently: ’The job of the opposition is not just to point out all the flaws in legislation coming to the floor, but to offer ideas for how you would fix it.’

“He’s right. Others offering proposals: Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona and Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

“We don’t agree with everything in these bills. But the GOP proposals contain smart ideas to increase choice and competition in the health insurance market - a powerful Republican counterpoint to the Democrats’ expensive plans.”

INDEPENDENT JOE?

“It’s journalistic shorthand to note a politician’s party identification and state after his or her name. For example: Jane Doe (D-NY). And so Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is identified as (I-CT). But the ’I’ does not stand for ’Independent.’ It stands for ’Insurance Industry,’” writes Paul Begala, CNN political contributor and former counselor to President Clinton, on the Daily Beast Web site.

“In 1993 and ’94, Lieberman consistently opposed President Clinton’s [health care] reform bill - which did not have a public option. In case you’re keeping score at home, Lieberman will filibuster the Obama plan, which has a public option, and he opposed the Clinton reform plan, which did not. Anything that protects consumers, it seems, is a bridge too far for Sen. Lieberman.

“Lieberman sided with insurance companies against sick people, and with insurance companies against citizens who want to sue to protect their rights in court. As the New York Times reported, ’Many of Mr. Lieberman’s friends said he had no alternative but to take this position because it was the one favored by the insurance industry. The industry is important to Connecticut’s economy and has generously donated to Mr. Lieberman’s campaigns over the years.’

“But in fairness to Sen. Lieberman, that’s just what his friends said back in 2000, not what he says today. What he says today is that President Obama is ’trying to do too much at once.’

“Too much at once? Too much at once? Why didn’t that occur to Sen. Lieberman when we were fighting a war in Afghanistan, and he was cheerleading for an invasion of Iraq? Too much at once? How about 4,351 dead American heroes who gave their lives in a war that Joe Lieberman didn’t think was doing too much?…

“Sen. Lieberman is always there when we don’t need him. Don’t ask him to do more than that. It’s just too much.”

Sean Lengell can be reached at slengell@ washingtontimes.com