Bipartisanship push sparks conservative revolt

Senate Republicans’ decision to tone down the partisan rhetoric and embrace a bipartisan strategy in the election year has sparked anger from conservatives calling for a more aggressive push against earmarks and spending.

The Red State blog sent out a blast e-mail Thursday to over 100,000 people saying the “Republicans in the United States Senate have agreed to capitulate to the Democratic agenda.” The message said that unlike the House GOP, the Senate Republicans have ignored polling data that shows public dissatisfaction with excessive spending.

{mosads}And the message scolded senators for playing too nice with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and liberal bogeyman Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass). “Rather than push bold conservative issues, the Senate GOP leadership will instead enjoy the table scraps Harry Reid, Teddy Kennedy and Hillary Clinton throw from the leadership table,” the e-mail said.

Later Thursday, the Senate’s conservative Steering Committee plans to brief reporters on its agenda for 2008 — including reining in earmarks and reducing spending.

The Senate GOP held a closed-door retreat Wednesday where caucus leaders emerged touting their plans to change the tone of Washington and seek bipartisan consensus on issues ranging from healthcare to entitlement spending. But slashing earmarks prompted internal debate and was left on the cutting room floor.

Whether to eliminate the rampant practice of earmarking is one of the most divisive issues facing Republicans. GOP leaders, veterans in the party and appropriators argue that it is the prerogative of Congress to set funding priorities and make line-item earmarks for projects critical for states. But fiscal hawks say that the ballooning number of earmarks wastes taxpayer dollars and has hurt the GOP at the polls.

“Voters want results, not bipartisan [support] for earmark boondoggles like the Bridge to Nowhere,” a Senate GOP aide said, referring to the infamous earmark in Alaska. “Bipartisan earmarking is exactly what led the GOP into the political wilderness.”

Supporters of the bipartisan push argue that the GOP will not win in November if voters perceive them as the party stalling legislation. Instead, they say voters want change in Washington, and reaching across the aisle will help portray the GOP as the party willing to eliminate the poisonous partisanship on Capitol Hill.

“Because whether somebody is a Republican voter, a Democrat voter, an independent voter out there, they are looking for us to solve problems in the United States,” Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, chief GOP campaign strategist, said Wednesday.

Ensign added that it is healthy for the parties to have differing opinions, but Republicans and Democrats should be open to ideas that come from the other side of the aisle.