Great column in the wall street journal from Tom Coburn of Oklahoma...

[6SpeedTA95]

Republicans Are in Denial
By TOM COBURN
May 27, 2008; Page A21

As congressional Republicans contemplate the prospect of an electoral disaster this November, much is being written about the supposed soul-searching in the Republican Party. A more accurate description of our state is paralysis and denial.

Many Republicans are waiting for a consultant or party elder to come down from the mountain and, in Moses-like fashion, deliver an agenda and talking points on stone tablets. But the burning bush, so to speak, is delivering a blindingly simple message: Behave like Republicans.

Unfortunately, too many in our party are not yet ready to return to the path of limited government. Instead, we are being told our message must be deficient because, after all, we should be winning in certain areas just by being Republicans. Yet being a Republican isn't good enough anymore. Voters are tired of buying a GOP package and finding a big-government liberal agenda inside. What we need is not new advertising, but truth in advertising.

Becoming Republicans again will require us to come to grips with what has ailed our party – namely, the triumph of big-government Republicanism and failed experiments like the K Street Project and "compassionate conservatism." If the goal of the K Street Project was to earmark and fund raise our way to a filibuster-proof "governing" majority, the goal of "compassionate conservatism" was to spend our way to a governing majority.

The fruit of these efforts is not the hoped-for Republican governing majority, but the real prospect of a filibuster-proof Democrat majority in 2009. While the K Street Project decimated our brand as the party of reform and limited government, compassionate conservatism convinced the American people to elect the party that was truly skilled at activist government: the Democrats.

Compassionate conservatism's starting point had merit. The essential argument that Republicans should orient policy around how our ideas will affect the poor, the widow, the orphan, the forgotten and the "other" is indisputable – particularly for those who claim, as I do, to submit to an authority higher than government. Yet conservatives are conservatives because our policies promote deliverance from poverty rather than dependence on government.

Compassionate conservatism's next step – its implicit claim that charity or compassion translates into a particular style of activist government involving massive spending increases and entitlement expansion – was its undoing. Common sense and the Scriptures show that true giving and compassion require sacrifice by the giver. This is why Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell his possessions, not his neighbor's possessions. Spending other people's money is not compassionate.

Regaining our brand as the party of fiscal discipline will require us to rejoin Americans in the real world of budget choices and priorities, and to leave behind the fantasyland of borrowing without limits. Instead of adopting earmarks, each Republican can adopt examples of government waste, largess and fraud, and restart the permanent campaign against big government.

Republicans can tear up the "emergency spending" credit card and refuse to accept any new spending whatsoever, including for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, until Congress does its job of eliminating wasteful spending. The federal budget contains a vast unexplored area of offsets. My office alone has identified $300 billion in annual waste. Borrowing from the next generation when we haven't done our job of oversight is unconscionable.

Regaining our brand is not about "messaging." It's about action. It's about courage. It's about priorities. Most of all, it's about being willing to give up our political careers so our grandkids don't have to grow up in a debtor's prison, or a world in which other nations can tell a weakened and bankrupt America where we can and can't defend liberty, pursue terrorists, or show compassion.

John McCain, for all his faults, is the one Republican candidate who can lead us through our wilderness. Mr. McCain is not running on a messianic platform or as a great healer of dysfunctional Republicans who refuse to help themselves. His humility is one of his great strengths. In his heart, he's a soldier who sees one more hill to charge, one more mission to complete.

Mr. Coburn is a Republican U.S. senator from Oklahoma.

I really thought this was a great article from a fantastic senator. I disagree with him on some issues there's no getting around it, but overall he's a far better senator then dinglehofe and this guy is not afraid to take on the party or his fellow Oklahoma Senator for that matter.

Republicans Are in Denial - WSJ.com

[Boerg]

I'm not sure I buy the last paragraph.

[kinggovernor]

gr8 article, I wish more people would pay better attention to it

[motivez]

Originally Posted by Boerg

I'm not sure I buy the last paragraph.

Why not?

[Boerg]

He's the one Republican who can? So there are no other Republicans who can, much less better ones? Just because he is not running a messianic platform or a great healer mean that he will lead us through the Forest. I am unconvinced that McCain will reign in wasteful spending, and this article did nothing to lead me to that conclusion.

Otherwise, though short, I thought it was a good article. I am very hopeful that McCain does a great job as President if elected; which, in my mind, is very likely (his election that is).

[Rouger2]

Maybe the republicans will turn around and be the fiscal conservatives they are suppose to be. McCain thank god got rid of the lobbyist on his campaign staff. I especially don't like the fact that some of them represented foreign countries.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by Rouger2

Maybe the republicans will turn around and be the fiscal conservatives they are suppose to be. McCain thank god got rid of the lobbyist on his campaign staff. I especially don't like the fact that some of them represented foreign countries.

Except the ones running it.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by Boerg

He's the one Republican who can? So there are no other Republicans who can, much less better ones? Just because he is not running a messianic platform or a great healer mean that he will lead us through the Forest. I am unconvinced that McCain will reign in wasteful spending, and this article did nothing to lead me to that conclusion.

Otherwise, though short, I thought it was a good article. I am very hopeful that McCain does a great job as President if elected; which, in my mind, is very likely (his election that is).

From: Presidential Candidates' Earmarks - washingtonpost.com

This should provide evidence that McCain will rein in wasteful spending, hell even Ron Paul eats at the earmark trough

[Rouger2]

Originally Posted by motivez

Except the ones running it.

No McCain got rid of anyone who was a lobbyist even the top dog of his campaign finances.