Richmond Times-Dispatch On The NCNA

On Sunday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran an editorial praising the National Council for a New America. Check out the editorial below:

"The National Council for a New America sounded like a good idea. Listen up: It is a good idea."

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Editorial
Richmond Times-Dispatch
May 17, 2009

It sounded like a good idea. After taking a pounding in two straight elections, Republicans clearly had to reassess themselves. To arrest the decline, Eric Cantor -- Republican whip in the U.S. House -- created the National Council for a New America. The congressman -- whose wife, Diana, serves on the board of directors of Media General, the newspaper's corporate parent -- said he hoped the council "will form the foundation of a concerted, policy-based forum to listen to, partner with, and empower the American people with ideas and solutions that speak directly to the needs of our great nation. This forum will engage in a conversation with America that seeks to remove ideological filters, addresses the realities we are confronting, and speaks to the challenges our citizens are facing."

The language does not seem objectionable. It describes things all parties ought to do. One point is to apply principles to real-world problems. The organization's "national panel of experts" includes Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Arizona Sen. John McCain, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The roster of congressional participants similarly covers the spectrum. The initiative holds great promise. As Lincoln said:

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we will save our country."

Yet as soon as the council was lauched, it came under assault -- not just from Democrats and Keith Olbermann but especially from Republicans and conservatives.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- a presidential novitiate last year and possible contender for the GOP nomination in 2012 -- attacked the group without mercy. Rush Limbaugh roared against the effort (which explains why the White House shrewdly identifies the entertainer as the "face" of the Republican Party). Various interest groups stuck out their tongues.

The left considers Cantor and his colleagues a Caucus of No. Republican factionalists apparently consider them sellouts.

We suspect the late Jack Kemp would have endorsed the council, which, after all, seeks to appeal to people's "transcendent goals and aspirations." Michael Gerson -- a Washington Post columnist, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, and professed conservative Christian -- applauds Cantor and Co., and describes the critics, accurately, as being "distinguished by their driving desire to lose."

The Democratic agenda will not be countered by obdurance, petulance, chips on the shoulder, or faces turning red. Republicans must answer with policies that reflect a conservatism understood as a temperament, a habit of the mind, and a quality of the imagination. To cite one example: There will be action on health care. Republicans need to be in a position to shape reform in positive ways.

The council has embarked on a listening tour -- another thing that provokes the shouting galleries.

The National Council for a New America sounded like a good idea. Listen up: It is a good idea.