GOP at 100 days: Wins on messaging, not bills

One hundred days into the Obama era, congressional Republicans insist they are proud of their “messaging” victories on Capitol Hill, even if they can point to few legislative successes.

Out of power in Congress since the 2006 elections, House and Senate Republicans became even lonelier with the departure of President Bush and the further erosion of their minorities after last November’s elections.

{mosads}Forced into this defensive mode and struggling through a vacuum in their national leadership, Republicans say they have found success by resorting to a “message war” that is slowly turning public opinion in their favor, even if polls show President Obama’s approval ratings remain above 60 percent.

The top target in GOP crosshairs: Democratic spending initiatives like the economic stimulus bill, the second half of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and the budget.

“We haven’t had a lot of victories because we don’t have the votes,” said 2008 GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). “But I think we’ve been able to frame the debate in a way which in the long run is an affirmation of our principles.”

House Republicans have spent the past 100 days fighting the criticism that they are the “Party of No.” The frustration has mounted, Republicans say, because they are excluded from writing bills.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) went so far as to label Obama’s pledge for bipartisanship “a ruse.” His deputy, Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), suggested the party felt duped.

“Having taken the president at his word, that he wants to work across the aisle, helped us in saying, ‘OK, we’re going to take him at his word, we’re going to try and present our alternatives, we’re going to try to work together with the Speaker of the House and others,’ ” Cantor said. “Thus far, that has not been the case.”

One upside, reported Republicans at both ends of the Capitol: The GOP is more unified than at any time since the “Republican Revolution” of 1994 that propelled the GOP to power for the first time in 40 years.

“I’ve seen our conference more unified than ever,” said Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), who was part of the 1994 class. “People are free with their own ideas and thoughts and what they’d like to see go forth.”

The absence of Bush has helped. Without an unpopular presidency to defend, Republicans say they feel freer.

“We don’t have the responsibility now of defending the administration, so in some ways that gives us a little more latitude when it comes to making our arguments,” said GOP Chief Deputy Whip John Thune (S.D.).

In the Senate, with a much wider margin of 58 seats instead of the 51 they had last year, Democratic leaders have pushed through an ambitious agenda highlighted by the stimulus bill and budget resolution.

Not a single House or Senate Republican supported the budget, and no House Republican supported the stimulus, which only passed the Senate with the help of centrist GOP Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine.

The GOP has played a key role in scuttling or slowing several of Obama’s Cabinet nominees, and the party has also blocked or slowed several major bills, including the Employee Free Choice Act and a controversial bankruptcy reform measure.

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) pointed out that using the power of public relations gave the party several notable victories just last year. The repeated mantra of “Find More, Use Less,” for example, finally overwhelmed Democrats, who ended the longstanding offshore drilling ban.

“Part of our job is to mold and defeat legislation, and another part is changing public opinion,” Alexander said.

But there is division over the party’s ideas and how to present them, with several Republicans saying the Democrats have had some success in painting the party as out of ideas.

“My one regret is that we haven’t been able to get across effectively the fact that we have had alternatives,” said McCain. “Every major proposal that the Democrats and the administration have, we’ve had what we feel is a very viable alternative — the budget, the stimulus, the omnibus, whatever it is, we’ve always had alternatives.”

Democratic leaders are fierce in their criticism of the GOP, saying that Republican obstructionism is masquerading as messaging.

“If that’s what they say is their biggest victory, it’s also the nation’s biggest loss,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.). “The reality is, just saying no to everything and offering no viable solutions to the nation’s economic challenges, and saying they want to see the president fail and the country fail — that’s just a sad policy.”