An article by Newt Gingrich

I stumbled across a interesting little article today posted back after the 2006 elections. It is a letter from Newt Gingrich to republicans on how to become the majority party again. He states some interesting points that tie into our in-class discussions.
First up, he informs the republicans to not "shrug off" the losses but to accept the defeat and use it as an informational springboard and to learn from the losses. Each race should be looked at individually and nothing should be overlooked.
Secondly, Newt asks a very important question. He wonders if the house republicans are electing leaders that will regain the majority, or if they are electing leaders that will run an effective minority. Right now, for me, i could not convince myself to lean towards either answer. I think the closer we get towards the elections the clearer the answer will be.
Newt's third point is that republicans must turn all their focus from Washington back towards the country. He believes that if the republicans focus on Washington and PACs instead of their districts and the electorate then they will be in for a long stay as the minority party. We have discussed this at length in class and we see here that the focus of politicians on either Washington or the home front, can truly have a monumental effect on their elections.
The fourth point Newt makes is extremely relevant seeing all of the intra-party disagreements and the way in which republicans in Washington are doing everything they can to alienate the white house. Newt states, "Over the next two years, House Republicans and the White House will have very different institutional interests and very different time horizons." His answer to this is a grassroots campaign to try and force real change in Washington. It doesn't seem like anyone is trying to get a republican grassroots coalition started these days. The republicans in congress have abandoned the white house and that seems to be their top priority.
Skipping to the sixth point, Newt talks about something we have also recently discussed in class. He calls for the republicans to forget the seniority when it comes the choosing chairs and to appoint republicans that have the value necessary to reach make a serious push for majority status. It seems the republicans would have to make a big push to make sure the house was run by republicans who had the interests of the party in mind rather than the interests of themselves.
Unfortunately, the vulnerable American politician worries much more about himself and his own race rather than the status of the party. With the republicans now turning their backs on the white house and the party seemingly up in arms with each other i believe the outcome of the 2008 election might already be starting to take shape. I guess the big question is can the republicans pull together and somehow gain enough momentum to overturn the democratic rule. Who knows? Maybe the fact that they are alienating themselves from the executive branch will help them more than hurt them. All we do know is that they have a very tough task ahead of them in 2008.