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Politico...
In debt talks, GOP
suffers from lack of lead messenger
By Jake Sherman
7/14/11
Republicans think they have an easy message to sell to voters: Slash
the size of government and stop tax increases.
But a sideshow has percolated on Capitol Hill: There are too many
Republican messengers with too many messages — often undercutting one
another — as the nation teeters on the brink of financial default.
It’s a problem for a party searching for a national figure who can go
toe to toe politically with Barack Obama.
Instead of a towering figure like former House Speaker Tip O’Neill —
who relished his battles with Ronald Reagan — congressional Republicans
seem to have a chorus of spokesmen each day. Speaker John Boehner
(R-Ohio) was elected as the No. 1 messenger, but he tends to keep
negotiating details to himself. Majority Leader Eric Cantor is surging
as a voice of the party and seems at times to be the party spokesman.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell suddenly emerged this week with a
debt plan that outraged the right, muddled the party message but won
the news cycle.
Even the president seems confused about exactly who he’s bargaining
with on the GOP side — testily declaring to Cantor that negotiations
with Boehner are meant to represent discussions with all Republicans.
Obama has clearly targeted Cantor as his bitter enemy in negotiations,
abruptly walking out of a critical meeting Wednesday evening after
dressing down Cantor.
The Republican presidential field also hardly has a unified position on
the debt ceiling.
That leaves Republicans without a dominant messenger — someone like
Newt Gingrich or O’Neill — who can counter the bully pulpit of the
president. The risk for Republicans now is that they’ll be seen as a
gaggle of bullies.
“That’s always the difficulty of the minority,” said Rep. Mike Simpson,
a Republican who was the speaker of the Idaho House. “Whether it’s us
or whether it’s them, you have multiple voices speaking for the party.
And I don’t know how you overcome that.”
Read the rest of the story at Politico
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