A speaker who can speak
Like many of you, I'm frustrated with the GOP congressional leadership. What's the point of having majorities if you can't stand up for something?
According to John Fund, there are several names for a possible new GOP leader, including some that I have not heard before:
Two names keep cropping up in conversations with GOP members: Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Representative Peter Roskam of Illinois. Blackburn is currently the vice chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and a frequent spokesman for the party on TV. A former businesswoman, Blackburn was an anti-tax tea-party-type candidate before there was a Tea Party. She led the fight against creating a state income tax in the Tennessee state senate in 2002 and swept into Congress in 2004 after winning that fight. While staunchly conservative, she maintains good relations with moderate members; and if elected, she would become the first woman to hold the top leadership job in either the House or Senate.
Frankily, I am not hitching my wagon to a certain person. However, I do have a certain profile in mind, or a person who can do some of these things:
1) Communicate, such as in presenting a coherent case for GOP ideas. It's not good enough to oppose Obamacare. We need someone who will take on President Obama directly and make the case.
2) Listen to the base, or the people who made you the majority party. I'm fed up with political consultants who don't see the big picture of what is happening between D.C. and San Francisco.
3) Someone who is not afraid to call President Obama's unilateral actions illegal, as Holly Robichaud explained:
There has been absolutely no compromising with this president. It’s his way or an executive order.
For example, there’ve been 51 alterations to the Obamacare law by the administration. Many of those changes, such as delaying the employer and individual mandates, should have been passed by Congress and then signed by the president. In a complete disrespect for our Constitution, the president made changes with only his pen.
What difference would it have made going through Congress? It would have forced compromise.
What's the point of checks and balances if the president keeps going around Congress? Worse than that, what's the point of having leadership afraid to rock the boat?
My message to the GOP is simple. Select a good communicator, and give the base something to support. I am not expecting miracles, but I do want to feel a pulse!
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.