Historic Opportunity Blown, Bigtime

The newly-minority House Republicans stomp the reform candidates for every leadership position.

by Rod D. Martin
November 17, 2006

Today, House Republicans thumpingly defeated the reform candidates for every leadership position in their caucus.  John Boehner wiped up the floor with Mike Pence in the contest for Minority Leader with a margin of 168-27.  Roy Blunt, considered by many to be more vulnerable (and a greater liability) than Boehner, crushed opponent John Shaddegg 137-57; while Adam Putnam, the most liberal in a three way race with Jack Kingston and Marsha Blackburn, won the third-ranking Republican Conference chairmanship.

The truth remains that on a voting-record basis, this is not a bad team.  The problem is that voting record just isn't the issue.  First, this is the team that brought us the era of earmarks which swelled federal expenditures and shrank the Republican delegation on Nov. 7th.  Second -- and in some ways more importantly -- the re-election of this gang greatly undercuts everyone's ability to claim that electing a new Republican majority in two years would…