GOP corruption: Can we have that reform now?

Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006

CONSERVATIVES outside the beltway have warned for years that the Republican Party was headed for a crackup if it didn’t return to the principles that brought it to power in 1994. Now, as the fallout from the Jack Abramoff scandal begins, Congressional Republicans are talking about reform for the first time in a decade. But it probably is too late.

“I have a hunch, and it’s only a hunch, that we’ve probably seen the climax of the conservative movement from 1994,” Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley said during an interview yesterday.

Blankley said he was “very concerned” about Republicans’ ability to hold on to power in Washington. “I think if I were a Democratic operative I’d put a lobster bib on,” he said. He isn’t the only one worried. Conservatives are wringing hands and stroking chins.

The only chance Republicans have of shedding this albatross is to institute real reforms, not paper ones. Rep. Charlie Bass is pushing that idea, as are others. But we won’t hold our breath waiting for it to happen. Power corrupts, and GOP leaders have given little indication that there is anything they value more than holding on to the power they attained the first time they promised to reform Washington. Why would Americans expect these new promises to be any less empty than the first ones?