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Political Roundup A Rise in Republican Angst By LANCE GAY Nov 5, 2005, 06:24
Republican angst is deepening in Washington, as incumbents fret about re-election chances and furor mounts over leadership shortcomings.
Reagan economic guru William Niskanen bitterly told his fellow gray suits at a recent tax summit that the Bush administration is the worst he's seen in his adult life. There was no dissent from the Heritage Foundation pooh-bahs and other conservative heavies present.
On Capitol Hill, GOP incumbents are so steamed about the steady erosion of support in the polls that there's open talk about new leadership elections in January. Expect discontent to erupt at a GOP retreat in January.
It's not just the failure to gain any movement on overhauling Social Security that has disenchanted the Republican right wing, but the failure of the president's tax-reform commission to embrace radical plans to scrap the income tax. Then there's the real prospect of even more congressional "emergency" spending for Hurricane Katrina relief, bird-flu prevention and Iraq, without any sign of the serious budget cuts of federal social programs that the GOP conservative base was once promised.
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