When Tom DeLay stepped down as Majority Leader, I let it be known that I didn’t think highly of John Boehner as his replacement. As I said here, my image of Rep. Boehner is starting to change. Today, after reading Andrew Roth’s post, I can enthusiastically say that John Boehner has earned my respect:

Boehner Holds Off On Filling Appropriations Vacancy Pending Conference Discussion On Earmarks.

Yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner told his House Republican colleagues that they were destined to remain in the political wilderness if they couldn’t kick their spending habits. Today, he took that debate one step further, announcing that the Steering Committee will not make an appointment to the vacant Appropriations Committee seat until after the House Republican retreat, where the GOP Leader has urged that a conference-wide discussion take place on earmarks.

Boehner is also expected to follow up later today at an RNC briefing, where he is expected to say, “We need to get serious about eliminating wasteful spending. Earmarks are a symptom of a much larger problem in Washington with runaway spending. We need to bring an end to wasteful earmarks, and we need to do it now.” Boehner is expected to add, “The Democratic candidates all talk as if America has failed, that if only we’d raise taxes, put our faith in government bureaucracies, and withdraw from the world stage, we’d be better off. Well I don’t buy it. And the more Americans hear that message, the more I think they’ll reject it.”

Following yesterday’s post about Boehner’s taking on earmarks, I said that Rep. Boehner’s speaking out was “music to my ears.” Today, I can say that Rep. Boehner sounds like he’s very serious about re-establishing the GOP as the party of fiscal sanity. Democrats will rightly point to porkmeisters like Ted Stevens as proof that the GOP hasn’t changed its ways.

If the GOP in general, and the House GOP in particular, want to regain the American people’s respect, they’ll have to produce. Good intentions aren’t enough. the road to liberal sainthood is paved with honorable intentions. If the GOP doesn’t produce measurable results, they won’t seperate themselves from the liberals.

I suspect that Boehner will get loud support from the GOP presidential candidates because it’ll help solidify the GOP base and because it’ll help in winning over northeastern moderates who claim that they’re fiscal conservatives. If the GOP wins over northeastern fiscal conservatives, then they’ll have a chance of being a truly national party again.

The best part is that they will have done it without them having pandered to those voters. Instead, they will have won them over without abandoning their principles.

Technorati Tags: Earmarks, John Boehner, Fiscal Restraint, Republicans, Democrats, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog