Local Delegation at Last Has Its Moment : Now Powerbrokers, Congressional Representatives Must Turn Ideology Into Productivity

As the whirlwind 100 days of the Republican “contract with America” unfold in Washington, it may take at least that long for everyone to get used to the idea of an Orange County congressional delegation with insider status.

For years they have been the outsiders, some regarded as extreme even within the orb of Republican thinking and regularly returned to Washington, where they were most effective at talking a good game. Now they face the challenge of not merely espousing less government, but of showing how to do it, or whether it can be done at all.

Daunting as the task of implementing policy may appear, there are echoes being heard of the Reagan Administration’s battle cries of hitting the deck running during the early 1980s. One leading voice of the new Congress, Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), contends that piecemeal budgetary reform won’t do and that entire departments of the federal government should be dismantled.

Some ideas about the radical reduction of government are outside the parameters of even the contract. And the contract itself is noticeably silent on prescriptions for cutting middle-class entitlements, which necessarily calls into question the scope and extent of any assault on federal spending. Almost everybody agrees that a Republican program will have to strike early and effectively to succeed.

Nevertheless, having Cox and company on the threshold of power is going to transform critics into policy-makers and the actual defenders of a program. It will give center stage to some of Orange County’s conservative political ideas, and also test their plausibility. The Newport Beach congressman, who has no shortage of such ideas or ambition, is likely to be a force to be reckoned with from his perch as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee. Some other members of the delegation, notably Reps. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), are known more for statements on the social and cultural battlefronts, and it will remain to be seen what they can accomplish as subcommittee heads.

The delegation at last has its moment. Now, moving from ideology to productivity poses a challenge for the 100 days and beyond.