Jenkins: GOP really needs to listen to the public
Sunday, November 16, 2008 7:40 PM PST
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E-mail this articleColumn by Don Jenkins
Daily News copy editor
If Republicans looked closely they could find good news on Election Day, at least in Washington.
Going against the Democratic tide (measured by historical standards it was a tide, not a tsunami), Republicans picked up one seat in the state Senate. In the House, they may lose one, depending on the outcomes of recounts in close races.
They still will be badly outnumbered in both chambers during the 2009 session, but they halted a trend toward dwindling numbers that began the year President Bush ran for re-election in 2004.
Yes, Obama won big in Washington, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi lost by more than anyone expected and Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland was ousted by a Democrat.
But U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, a King County Republican, survived being targeted for defeat by Democrats. And some Republican state legislators beat strong challengers, showing that the Republican label wasn’t death in swing districts.
The mid-term elections in 2006 were worse for Washington Republicans. Their losses in the Legislature were substantial. The results this year suggest Republicans already had reached the bottom here, although nationally Democrats continued the surge they started two years ago.
Besides taking the White House, Democrats picked up at least six seats in the U.S. Senate and at least 24 seats in the House, The number of Democratic governors increased from 26 to 29, and the number of states with Democrats in control of both legislative chambers grew from 23 to 27.
Picking up the pieces the day after the election, Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan said his party will “take a deep breath and listen to the American people.”
The next day, though, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, lectured, instead of listened. He broke it to the American people they’d been snookered.
Writing in The Washington Post, Boehner stated that Obama masked his policies with “moderate rhetoric” and soon will push his agenda through a Congress “purchased by liberal special interests.”
The day after that, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, offered his solution to the party’s downturn — smile. Republicans must quit coming across “as a bunch of angry old men,” he said.
Good luck with that. The day after Obama received 63.25 million votes, more than anyone in U.S. history, Rush Limbaugh called him a “Chicago thug.”
A few days later, Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., said he feared Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist dictatorship. Broun probably wasn’t impressing the 72 percent of Americans who are confident Obama will revive the economy, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll.
Meanwhile, Sarah Palin went back to Alaska and responded to an unflattering report on Fox News that she thought Africa was a country. She called the anonymous sources, campaign insiders, cowardly jerks.
It was not a pretty sight.
But the aftermath was uglier than the election itself for Republicans, at least here.
Now they have the job of opposing the dominant Democrats in Olympia. Voters have relieved them of the responsibility of governing, but they still have the responsibility to earn their keep by providing responsible opposition to the governing party.
To fulfill that role, stunts like accusing Democrats of coddling sex offenders and proposing unrealistic tax cuts won’t work.
They will have to follow Duncan’s advice and listen to voters — really listen.
House Republicans went on a statewide “listening tour” prior to the 2006 session. The meeting I attended went like this: Two dozen people, most of them active Republicans, listened as a legislator held the floor.
When he finally yielded, the party faithful suggested the Legislature adopt several expensive measures, such as build more highways, lock up criminals longer and compensate landowners for laws that restrict how they use their property.
And, oh yeah, cut taxes.
Until Republicans come up with something more coherent, they’ll have to settle for holding on to what they have.
Originally published Nov. 16, 2008.
Other recent Don Jenkins columns:
Don't let partisans determine your reality (Nov. 2)
New era of sacrifice bears down on the U.S. (Oct. 19)
Illustrious, industrious past and a bailout in our future (Sept. 29)
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