Hastert's Mediocre Leadership

We've heard again and again from the GOP jersey-wavers that concessions to liberals must be made in order to expand the Republican House majority sufficiently to get conservative policy enacted.

The table below shows why this claim is spurious:



With an explicitly conservative agenda called The Contract With America, Newt Gingrich gained 54 net House seats for Republicans in 1994. When he left the Speaker's chair, he had lost just 2 of these, leaving the GOP up 52 seats for having him as Speaker.

Hastert has run away from conservatives, beating the moderate, go-along-to-get-along drum from his 1st gavel, and as a result through four Congressional election cycles managed merely to regain the 2 seats Gingrich lost in '96. This is pathetic, given the powers of incumbency and the growing conservative tide marked by the rise of Fox News, conservative talk radio, and the ascendance of national security issues over this period. The GOP has also consistently outspent the Dems in campaigns over this period.

Also keep in mind that Hastert hasn't begun to close the gap to hit the majority the charismaless Tom Foley procured for the Democrats in 1992.

I'd trade Hastert for Newt in a heartbeat. Gingrich got results by making more conservatives; Hastert's only alienated conservatives in a quixotic quest to appeal to moderates and liberals.