Republicans Need a Leader Like Newt Gingrich Was in 1994

Author's Note: This post is a response to a comment made on a post on Mixx entitled: A History Lesson on Healthcare Reform... Remember 1994?

That was the title for the Mixx page for the recent Mainstream 180 post entitled: Democrats Have Short Memories, But An Elephant Never Forgets.

The comment was a response to a remark from my friend Janejas, who had this to say:

@FatLester The difference is that there are more than 30 million Americans that will have healthcare this time.I do believe that they will have something to say about it in November too.

My response to his comment is as follows:

The people whom you are referring to (and that number is debatable) typically don't vote except during Presidential election years. Will they this time? If I'm a psychic the answer is "no".

Furthermore, as many as 50 million stand to lose existing healthcare coverage due to the incentives provided to employers to drop healthcare coverage and place their employees on the federal plan.

This certainly won't stand to help the Carteresque unemployment figures. I'll give the President the benefit of the doubt and assume he hasn't been deliberately destroying jobs to advance his healthcare reform measure.

The only thing that MAY save you guys this go around is the fact that the GOP has no real leader like they did in 1994. I respect Boehner, but he's no Newt Gingrich in terms of leading a movement.

I know the future Presidential candidates are all keeping a low profile until the 2012 election season nears, but someone within the GOP besides Rush, Mark Levin and Beck (read: someone in an elected position in either the House or Senate) must step up and assume a leadership role if the party is to be able to capitalize of the Dem's increasing unpopularity as was the case in '94.