Doomsday in D.C.

By Charles W. Dunn

Are Republicans on the verge of raising President Barack Obama from the dead just as they did President Bill Clinton in 1995-96?

After capturing convincing control of the House of Representatives in 1994, Republicans thought they could defeat Clinton in the 1995-96 battle of the budget by refusing to compromise, which led to a government shutdown and the political resurrection of Clinton, who handily won a second term in 1996. Many observers had given him up for dead. His poll numbers were low, he had suffered an ignominious defeat of his health care plan and he faced a seemingly endless array of scandals.

Like Clinton, Obama also suffers from low poll numbers. Americans believe the nation is heading in the wrong direction and that Obama is failing to provide good leadership. And, like Clinton, he faces a recalcitrant Republican Party.

Are Republicans failing to learn from history? Edmund Burke said: "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." And George Santayana similarly said: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Today Republicans are losing while winning - despite their statistical, philosophical, political and constitutional advantages in the battle of the budget and debt-ceiling crisis.

Statistically, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2.4 million fewer Americans are working now than when Obama signed the economic stimulus, and real unemployment has risen to 16.2 percent.

This and other adverse economic data have occurred on Obama's watch, which should greatly enhance the GOP's position. But Obama, in a Houdini-like act of political legerdemain, has put the onus on Republicans by calling daily White House meetings with congressional leaders to solve the problem. He has become the quarterback calling the signals.

Philosophically, Republicans have put forth a clear proposal in Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to rectify the budget and debt-ceiling crisis, but neither Obama nor congressional Democrats have done so. Obama's bipartisan Deficit Reduction Commission set forth an excellent proposal, which he promptly dismissed. He appears to be disproving the old adage that "You can't beat something with nothing."

Politically, Republicans gained an overwhelming majority in the House and a strong minority in the Senate in 2010, which gave them extraordinary political momentum. If House and Senate Republicans had unified behind a solution to the budget and debt-ceiling crisis, such as the Ryan Plan, they could have put Democrats on the defensive and possibly gained enough votes from conservative Democratic senators by forcing the president's hand, requiring him either to approve or veto an act of Congress.

Constitutionally, Republicans should be in the driver's seat on these issues. Both tax and appropriations bills must originate in the House, which Republicans control.

But despite what appears to be their constitutional advantage, they have ceded center stage to the president by allowing him to convene meetings at the White House, which they dutifully attend as pawns on the president's political chessboard.

Republican President Abraham Lincoln said, "A House divided against itself cannot stand." Such is the Republican Party, divided between the tea party, which refuses to compromise, and Republicans, who are willing to do so.

In the current crisis, the tea party appears to be the GOP's worst enemy and Obama's best friend. The tea party seems not to understand that since the nation's founding, compromise has always played on the center stage of American politics and that Democrats control the presidency and the Senate while Republicans only control the House.

Lacking this understanding, the tea party looks like it is willing to go down in flames - and take the Republican Party with it.

Charles W. Dunn, author of "The Seven Laws of Presidential Leadership," is distinguished professor at the Robertson School of Government at Regent University. Email: cwdunn@regent.edu.