The GOP Contract Renegotiated

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National Journal:


The GOP Contract Renegotiated
UNLIKE IN 1994, LOBBYISTS AND GRASSROOTS TEA PARTIERS ARE PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE REPUBLICANS' NEW 'PLEDGE TO AMERICA.'
by Major Garrett
Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010

Updated at 5:00 p.m.

Moments before House Republican leaders were to present the final draft of their "Pledge to America" to the members of their conference, Barry Jackson was headed down the grand marble staircase from the Capitol Rotunda to a basement meeting room. As a congressional aide of long standing who now works for Minority Leader John Boehner, Jackson understood that his power lies in a delicate mix of great influence and well-cultivated anonymity; he thought he could make the trip unobtrusively.

But a New York Times reporter intercepted Jackson and asked him a question that spoke both to his power and his prominence. "What is your role with Mr. Boehner," Jackson was asked. "I'm his chief of staff," Jackson responded, nonchalantly. Accurate, but not entirely true.

Jackson is the only person in America who had a hand in drafting both the Contract With America (the House Republicans' 1994 manifesto) and the Pledge to America that the party unveiled on Thursday, and he is therefore a reminder of the GOP's reversal of fortunes over the past decade and a half. Jackson worked for Boehner in 1994 when the two-term member of Congress was brought into then-Minority Leader Newt Gingrich's inner circle after Bill Clinton's 1992 election as president.