Run, Cole, Run

Run, Cole, Run
by Richard A. Viguerie

Contact: Bob Sturm, 703-396-6974;
after 6 PM Eastern, Vi Shields or Bob Sturm, 703-906-6542, 703-307-8176

MEDIA ADVISORY, May 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) is chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)—the core GOP committee responsible for getting Republicans elected to the House, with majority control always as the ultimate goal.

Well, Cole and his NRCC haven't been doing so well lately, as you know if you've been watching the news at all. The Republicans have lost three straight special House elections this year—in Illinois, Louisiana, and most recently Mississippi—in three of the most conservative House districts in the nation.

That portends disaster in November. Predictably, a lot of House Republicans are calling for Cole's head. They want him replaced as chairman of the NRCC.

I have no problem with that. For over two years I've called for the wholesale replacement of Republican leaders in the Senate, the House, and the various GOP committees from the Republican National Committee on down. Cole is definitely on my "X" list.

But it's not enough to just shuffle the deck chairs on the G.O.P. Titanic. Yes, the current pilots of the ship headed the Republican Party directly toward the iceberg with their welfare-warfare policies, but it does no good to simply replace them with another set of navigators following the same charts.

The current Republican leadership must be replaced by principled small-government conservatives who will recreate the GOP as the Conservative Party. Only that will get the conservative base out of the lifeboats and back on board.

Make no mistake about it, Democrats didn't win in those three special House elections this year because their districts had suddenly turned liberal. The Republicans lost because the base of the GOP — conservatives — is so discouraged and angry over the big government policies of the national party.

And Rep. Tom Cole just doesn't get that.

Asked a year ago why the Republicans lost the House in 2006, Cole responded: "Oh, I don't think the problem was spending. People who argue that we lost because we weren't true to our base, that's just wrong."

He pooh-poohed the idea that the GOP was hurt by appropriating federal money for bridges to nowhere in Alaska.

Well, Congressman, how are you doing without your base?

"I think we've hit our floor," Cole said a year ago. "For us to lose more seats, it's going to take a catastrophic presidential election."

Well, Congressman, it looks like you're headed right for that perfect storm—a catastrophic presidential election and, according to current estimates, a loss of 20 more GOP seats in the House and equally disastrous results in the Senate.

By all means, fire Cole and all the rest of the Republican leadership. But if the Republicans are taking their "Change you deserve" antidepressant pills, and are no longer suicidal, they must replace the Coles with leaders who understand one simple axiom:

You lose by rejecting your conservative base and trying to buy elections with liberal big-government bribes. You win by energizing your conservative base and then reaching out to like-minded independents.

Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation magazine) and one of the "conservatives of the century" (The Washington Times). His latest book is Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books), which Jerome Corsi wrote in WorldNetDaily, is "destined to become a classic of conservative thinking" and "may be the most important conservative book written in the last quarter century."