In the Agora: The Five Horsemen of the Revolution

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December 31, 2004

The Five Horsemen of the Revolution

Christian Sciene Monitor describes five new GOP senators, whose appearance in the upper chamber could mark the end, or at least a temporary cessation, in the Senate's less-partisan atmosphere and the beginning of a more combative style.

These conservatives are echoes of the heady days of the 1995 GOP Revolution, when the party was ardently conservative and swaggeringly partisan--and most successful at transforming thoughts into deeds. Some of those thoughts have been more long-lasting than others, while others probably have proven to be flawed in the long term. Nevertheless, senators like Tom Coburn (the new senator from Oklahoma) are apt to actually stand up and fight for a balanced budget. Other policy positions may not be so well-reasoned, of course, but still, their idea that senators are there to make good policy instead of get reelected is one that just might catch on.

Of course, the fiscal challenges these new senators and their colleagues will face are different from previous years'. Washington Post reports on the deliberations within the Pentagon over how to trade off funding programs to sustain our operations in Iraq and elsewhere. Among the proposals: Cutting funding for the F-22 and retiring the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John F. Kennedy. For what it's worth, I'm sanguine about killing the F-22--an overly-expensive plane designed to beat aircraft that were on the Soviet Union's drawing board--but retiring a carrier is a different matter altogether. As I recall, one of the reasons I voted Bush in 2000 was because I really liked his campaign's views on military transformation. Aircraft carriers can play a role in that because of their flexibility in basing, in addition to their sheer power. Mothballing the Kennedy without having an alternative platform for sea dominance and power projection sounds an awful lot like cannibalizing the fleet.

Posted by Paul Musgrave at December 31, 2004 11:35 AM

Comments

The challenge for anyone in public life, or even those of us who share our opinions, is to be partisan (a good thing) without being uncivil, petty or mean. I admire Tom Coburn for taking many principled stands, but I found uncivil his describing his campaign against conservative Democrat Brad Carson as being one of "good versus evil." Coburn also has a knack for getting sidetracked on silly things such as his quest to warn us of "rampant lesbianism" among southeastern Oklahoma schoolgirls.

Posted by: Joel Thomas at December 31, 2004 02:00 PM | permalink

I remember all that, and it was pretty odd. But these things tend to happen in congressional races...and hopefully we'll see less of the rampant lesbianism, and more of the budget-hawkishness.

Posted by: Paul at December 31, 2004 02:17 PM | permalink

Having a mother from Oklahoma, a wife from Oklahoma and having lived there for a few years in the past I tend to pay a little more attention to news from that area than is normal for those who don't live there. Sorry, but Coburn is a Grade-A whack job and if the Republican party depends on him for anything I feel sorry for them. Almost as sorry for them as I feel for the people of Oklahoma who chose him over a reasonable conservative Democrat just because of the (R). Very sad.

Posted by: Jim S at January 1, 2005 01:48 AM | permalink