Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: GOP jitters Date: Mon, 26 Oct 92 14:37:03 EST Message-ID: \SE D;LIFE \HD GOP jitters \SH Reaganauts turn on the Bushies as gloom spoils the party \BY Elisabeth Hickey \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES One week to go. No resumes in the office copier, please! Chats with Republicans around town reveal most are at some stage of the seven stages of grief. The prospect of a Clinton administration (The horror! they cry. The horror!) looms large. Some are numb. Some are angry. Some are in denial. It ain't over till the fat lady. . . . "The people I talk to are sufficiently focused on the campaign that they're not looking at the colors of each other's mood rings," sniffs Bush campaign aide James "New Paradigm" Pinkerton. What color is his ring flashing? "Ideological or visionary Republicans are inherently optimistic," he says, sounding depressed. "I'm really not toooo depressed," says William Kristol, chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle. "Years ago, my father [neoconservative godfather Irving Kristol] characterized himself as a 'cheerful pessimist.' And I'd say that's my mood." Mr. Quayle's fans are just about the only happy Republicans since their man put on a bulldog suit to attack Al Gore in the vice presidential debate. "I'm walking about three feet off the ground," says John Piper of the booster club Friends of Dan Quayle. "Whatever happens, there will be one victory: Dan Quayle is no longer a caricature." "He really removed the monkey that had been on his back since '88," Mr. Kristol says of his boss, adding pointedly: "If we lose, it certainly is not going to be his fault." But the GOP rank and file is decidedly blue. A quick survey of Reaganauts, those true believers who arrived 12 years ago to run a revolution, finds the general mood is equal parts: a) Disgust at the way George Bush undermined and disowned the Reagan record. b) Glee that Mr. Bush is getting what he deserves. c) Pure terror at losing their jobs. (They came young and careless; now they've got kids and a mortgage.) Among the Bushies, who are getting heaped with blame, the mood is: a) Incredible rage (Mr. Bush, such a decent guy, doesn't deserve this!). b) Pure terror at losing their jobs. * * * Smelling blood, the Reaganauts are beating up the Bushies. "The Bushies just fear for their jobs and fear for the future, with no comprehension of what went wrong and what will happen to them," scoffs a Reaganaut Schedule C - meaning political - appointee. "They're like frightened, furry little animals. It's just so sad." "I say good riddance to them," says R. Emmett "Bob" Tyrrell Jr., editor of the American Spectator magazine. "They think they are in government by divine right. It's time for a reality check. They did nothing to extend their coalition, nothing to keep the Reagan Democrats aboard. They are very narrow, constipated Philistines who had no wide view of politics, no understanding of what Reagan stood for." "The mood is terrrribllle," says a Republican Hill staffer, drawing out the word with a long sigh. Reached at his office on a Friday afternoon, he says, "We're all sitting here commiserating, thinking Bush is going to lose and drag us all down. There's no longer any concern about how big the coattail effect will be. The question is how heavy is the anchor." Another Republican shares a dream he had the other night: Bill Clinton wins, and his Arkansas gang rides northeast, herding exiled Democrats along the way. They parade into the city on donkeys. Republicans are run out of town. "What will happen is something the likes of which this city has never seen before," the Hill staffer says ominously. Most of those interviewed, including the staffer, asked not to be identified lest they lose their jobs earlier than they're convinced they're going to anyway. * * * When Ronald Reagan won in 1980, Jimmy Carter Democrats found exile quite pleasant. They could assimilate themselves easily into the Washington woodwork. Washington institutions are, after all, largely run by Democrats: the media, Capitol Hill, the lawyers. For the past 12 years, Democrats have been right around the corner. Republicans could be sent to the moon. "Imagine," says a Republican who watches the White House closely. "The White House, both houses of Congress, judicial appointments and much of the elite press all in the same fundamental camp. This means almost a total freeze-out." He remembers that people who left the Reagan administration did not have an easy time looking for work. "Most influence-peddling is Democratic, so being a Republican wasn't of value. Now, it really won't be of value." Reaganaut Lyn Nofziger, now a political consultant, helped plenty of young Republicans get jobs in the Reagan administration. Sensing that the revolution was petering out, he's been telling young friends for the past couple of years - not that he knew they were going to lose, mind you - "It's time to go. Get out of here while the gettin's good." They didn't listen. Mr. Nofziger calls many appointees "overpaid and underworked." "Most of them have never really been out in the world, where you had to fight for a living and really perform in order to keep your job. It'll be good for them." (Hearty, booming laugh.) * * * "You shouldn't kid yourself that it is going to be all your life. It wouldn't be good for the country if it were all your life," former Reagan speechwriter Clark Judge says earnestly. "Throwing the rascals out is a big favor to the rascals," he adds. "Sometimes it takes a little shove. But it's a lot easier being out than being in. Less anxiety, and a lot more fun. You're not shaking up the world, but you are seeing your family." Mr. Nofziger spent 21 months in Mr. Reagan's governor's office in California, 18 months in the Nixon White House and a year in the Reagan White House. He's just written his memoirs, "Nofziger" (Regency Gateway, $21.95). And he shares a traditional Republican outlook: "I don't like government," he says. "People should go into government, spend a couple years, and then go home before they become part of the problem." But some conservatives lament that it is just this Republican distaste for government - coupled with the habit of serving for a time and then defecting to go home and do the business of America (which is business) - that has conceded the cultural war to the liberals. "The culture is the great unfinished task, and the one in which we've made the least progress," Mr. Kristol says. "And I would be critical of those Republicans who think the government takes care of itself. We need to be more attentive to governing and forming a real governing majority." * * * Scratch a Republican a little deeper, and you'll find that career angst is only at the surface. Beneath it is a crisis of the spirit, the dark feeling that everything they've been fighting for is about to disappear in a Democratic orgy of government programs and higher taxes. "In one way, it's as if the Reagan Revolution had never been born," a GOP appointee says. "That is terribly dispiriting. But the record is a good record, despite attempts to put it down." "I'm 32, I've been professionally active in politics for 16 years, and I personally cannot think of a time when I've felt more depressed about politics," says a Republican Hill staffer. "We have really come very close to changing things for the better in this country. It's an unfinished revolution." Republicans dread the inevitable revisionism of the past 12 years that they're sure awaits them, courtesy of the media and the Democrats. Victors, after all, get to write history. Some Reaganauts are positively manic that the press will take a Clinton victory and use it as a repudiation of Mr. Reagan, not Mr. Bush. One White House observer says the Reaganauts are in a flighty state, ricocheting from despair - "We didn't convince anybody. All the party was for was to win the Cold War, we didn't convince anybody. We failed." - to righteous anger - "We didn't fail. It's all Bush's fault!" There is sure to be a long, bitter fight over the meaning of a loss. "The Bush camp will claim it's a result of going too hard to the right this summer," this observer says. While this may be accepted by the press, the GOP will reject it, he says. "The lesson the Republicans are going to draw is not that they were insufficiently moderate and insufficiently libertarian but that a nonideological presidency is a disaster for a Republican." Fingers will point: Dick Darman. Nick Brady. Pat Buchanan. The whole Murphy Brown/family values thing. "I think there may be some attempt to snicker at family values and blame family values for whatever failures the campaign's had," says Mr. Kristol, one of the architects of the message. "I think that would really be wrong, and I'm going to try to fight against that." Perhaps from political exile at a think tank or university. * * * If President Bush goes down Nov. 3, there are at least two schools of thought about the next four years. Optimists say it will be a remarkable time for growth and opportunity for the Republican Party. Mr. Clinton will screw up so badly, this line of thinking goes, that conservative grass-roots organization will mushroom, mailing lists will be refurbished and, best of all, Republicans will enjoy shooting rubber bands and cheap shots at the Democrats all day long. "It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to do a lot of attacking of the enemy, instead of defending my friends, who are often indefensible," Mr. Nofziger says. "Sometimes defeat is good, because it forces you to reassess where you are and what you believe in and forces you to look to new leaders." "History is filled with ups and downs," Mr. Tyrrell says. "I don't see that this is the end of the world. I mean, think of the opportunities for laughs with this guy in the White House." The cynical view hits much deeper than a loss next Tuesday. A President Clinton, say the cynics, will not be another Jimmy Carter, floundering around. "I've had arguments with my fellow conservatives who say, 'Oh, it will be fine, we'll only be out of power four years, it will be good for the movement, give us new energy,' " Mr. Kristol says. "But there's a lot they can do to make it harder for us to win four years from now. They will try to change the rules of the game." He ticks off the list: changing campaign finance laws and voter registration laws to benefit Democrats, allowing federal employees to become politically active. . . . (Nightmare: It's your friendly IRS agent calling, asking for dollars for Democrats. . . .) Grover Norquist, president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, lays out the gloom and doom scenario in the November issue of the American Spectator. Conservatives who cherish a "pipe dream of a brief Clinton interregnum" are kidding themselves, he writes. Mr. Clinton "will use the power and finances of the state to build an impregnable fortress." What? wail Republicans. Never to grace Washington's A-List again? One week to go. Wake us when it's over. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM