By Jackie Kucinich
Roll Call Staff
A smaller-than-ever group of House Republicans on Thursday decamped to the tony Homestead Resort in Virginia, more than 200 miles away from the Capitol.
But instead of exploring what went wrong in the 2006 and 2008 elections, Republicans seemed content with who they are — insisting it wasn’t their ideas that sent them deep into the minority but simply an unfavorable political environment.
Speaker after speaker at the three-day GOP retreat declared victory in last week’s economic stimulus fight and said it was time to simply move beyond the two cycles of losses. Continue reading ‘No Identity Crisis Here’
By Jackie Kucinich
Roll Call Staff
Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and his chief deputy, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), are retooling the House GOP’s once-formidable legislative arm-twisting operation into one focused on helping the party bolster vulnerable incumbents and unify its message.
Aggressively collecting votes from the rank and file — the hallmark of whips such as Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and his predecessor, Tom DeLay (R-Texas) — will take a back seat for the House GOP as it attempts to dig its way out of minority status.
The first step: McCarthy and Cantor intend to raise $1 million for the whip team to ensure that the 50-plus members are less worried about re-election and can focus on helping the two young guns expand the Republican Conference. Continue reading ‘For Cantor, Message Is the Medium’