The Washington Times

For the first time, a poll shows John McCain ahead of George W. Bush in New Hampshire, a clear boost for the most serious challenger to the Texas governor for the GOP nomination. But it would be no less a mistake to overestimate its significance than to deny that it constitutes proof of the Arizona senator’s political viability.

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The Washington Times

The conservative case against the budget agreement reached by the White House and Congress goes like this: Because of political cowardice, congressional Republicans abandoned the budget caps they had sworn to uphold two years ago in the balanced budget deal they reached with the White House. Although they claim to have protected the Social Security Trust Fund, they have, in fact, dipped into the money. And at the end of the day, the Republican Congress gave President Clinton more money, even, than he had asked for in his budget submission in January 1999.

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The budget battle of 1999, hard to believe but true, has featured GOP cunning.

View this article at The Weekly Standard

REPUBLICANS BOTH INSIDE and outside Congress have been pleasantly surprised by how well they are doing politically in this year’s budget fight with President Clinton. Ever since Clinton squashed the Republican Congress over the government shutdown in 1995-96, the autumnal rites of appropriation have been a time of dread for the GOP, an exercise in wondering who among them will be a human sacrifice come the next election as a result of drawing the wrath of the Democratic administration.

This time, simply put, they are not getting killed. In fact, thanks to their tireless reiteration of their unifying theme — namely, that they are going to protect every last dime of Social Security from marauding Democrats — and thanks to the money the GOP is spending on advertising in select congressional districts repeating the point, poll numbers show the Republican message taking hold. It looks like Republicans have at last found an incantation with the same black magic power as the Democrats’ “Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment.”

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The Washington Times

Bill Clinton rightly gets credit for pioneering “New Democrat” governance and Third Way politics. He led the Democratic Party into new political territory, the land of balanced budgets and the end of the welfare entitlement, leaving behind party baggage of fiscal irresponsibility and an attachment to Great Society-style social programs. The question for Democrats is how permanent these changes in the party’s governing philosophy are.

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