There is life in the conservative movement yet. You only see glimpses of it these days, but it’s there.
The most recent evidence of life is Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) attempt to cut some federal spending. The senator recently proposed on the Senate floor several possible cuts, including $452 million in federal funding for two bridges in Alaska. The senators from Alaska responded quickly – and hyperbolically.
“I will put the Senate on notice – and I don’t kid people,” the senior senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, said on the Senate floor. “If the Senate decides to discriminate against our state, I’ll resign from this body.”
OK by us. It would be hard to imagine a better budget-cutting measure than sending Ted Stevens home. A few more years of the status-quo approach and we can change Alaska’s name from the Frontier State to the “Pork State” – or maybe the Bridge State.”
Sen. Stevens continued: “This is not the Senate I came to. This is not the Senate I’ve devoted 37 years to . . .”
No senator, it isthe Senate you came to 37 years ago – and that’s precisely the problem. What the “Tom Bomb” proposed would have exploded decades of “I’ll scratch your pork if you’ll scratch mine.”
Conservatives used to shake their collective heads at the spend-happy ways of Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV). If only conservatives had their chance to run the show, they campaigned, they would do things differently.
That’s what the Contract with America was all about: conservatives would be different.
Well, conservativesmay be different, but many Republicans haven’t been – at least not much. They have slipped into Robert Byrd’s shoes, and the shoes fit just fine.
And those who object, well . . . they are shunned. Only 14 senators were brave enough, or principled enough, to side with Coburn.
That has made it very clear where the future lies for conservatives. It lies in the hands of Sen. Coburn and his 14 colleagues who will still stand up for conservative principles.
If that means Sen. Stevens resigns, well Senator, don’t let that pig bite your back end on the way out.