GOP Answers Clinton With Call to ‘Revolution of Ideas’ : Republicans: N.J. Gov. Whitman says hers is party of change. Congressional foes criticize President’s proposals.

New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, leading the Republican response to the President’s State of the Union speech, declared Tuesday night that a “revolution of ideas” has taken hold in statehouses across the country and called on President Clinton to “join us as we change America . . . , making government not bigger but smaller.”

The plain-spoken New Jersey governor addressed the nation from her state’s capitol in Trenton. She pledged on behalf of the Republican Party that--by the time Clinton addresses Congress at this time next year--Americans will have lower taxes, more efficient government, a stronger America, more faith in politics, more pride in their states and communities and more confidence in themselves. And Republicans, she suggested, will be the ones to deliver on those promises.

“I would remind the President and Congress that success is not measured in the number of laws passed but in the results,” Whitman told a chamber full of New Jersey lawmakers and invited guests. “Is government serving the people better? Are neighborhoods safer? Are families stronger? Are children learning more? Are we better prepared to meet the future? Do we have more freedom?”

Whitman’s rejoinder to Clinton marked the first time in recent memory that a sitting governor has been chosen to present the opposition party’s response to a President’s State of the Union Address. Whitman’s speech also marked the first time that such an address has been given before a large audience, rather than in the intimacy of a House or Senate conference room, presided over by a lone cameraman and attended by a single political aide.

It came just a year into Whitman’s first term as governor, making the 46-year-old politician one of many Republican freshmen who are shaping the nation’s new political landscape.

While Whitman laid out the broad contours of the Republicans’ response to Clinton, other Republicans were more specific in offering alternatives.

In a 60-second paid advertisement that ran just moments before the President’s address, two leading Republicans took aim at the centerpiece of Clinton’s proposal--a middle-class tax cut--and called for a more sweeping reform of the tax code than some Republican leaders have proposed.

Paid for by the conservative think tank Empower America, the advertisement featured William J. Bennett and Jack Kemp, both former Cabinet secretaries in Republican administrations. In it, Bennett called Clinton’s proposed middle-class tax cut “a formula for recession” and warned: “Tinkering around the margins won’t work.”

“Tell Bill Clinton we want a flat tax for a real tax cut,” added Kemp, who is expected to join several other Republicans in a run for the presidency. The flat tax would eliminate tax loopholes and charge Americans a flat percentage of their income. Authored by House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.), the flat tax proposal has become a rallying cry for many conservative Republicans, though House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has yet to endorse it.

After the President’s speech, many Republican lawmakers expressed outright disbelief at Clinton’s promises to balance the budget and shrink government.

Rep. Constance A. Morella (R-Md.) wondered how Clinton would balance the budget, as promised, with all the tax breaks he proposed. And Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), a likely presidential candidate, dismissed Clinton’s 80-minute address as a “patchwork oration devoid of either vision or leadership.” He declared flatly that the President failed at “trying to . . . reinvent himself.”

Senate Majority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) cautioned that while Clinton “talked about a ‘new covenant,’ he advocated old liberal policies.” And Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), president pro tempore of the Senate, called Clinton’s address Tuesday night a “me-too” speech from “a man who changes his opinions and agenda as frequently as the tides.” Newly minted Republican Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama called Clinton’s speech “old ideas” that Americans have rejected.

But most Republicans faulted Clinton largely for embracing ideas that they argue they have spearheaded and for doing so too late and with too little conviction.

“He has seen which way the parade is going and he’s trying to get in front of it,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “But he lacks credibility.”

But while lawmakers in Washington sought to blunt the effects of Clinton’s address, Whitman appeared to take a different tack. In an assertive and confident speech before a friendly crowd dominated by political supporters, Whitman sought to cast the President as a leader who must now take his political marching orders from Republicans both in Washington and in the nation’s state capitols and legislatures.

“There’s nothing virtuous about raising taxes. There’s nothing heroic about preserving a welfare system that entraps people. And there’s nothing high-minded about wasting other people’s money on big government spending sprees,” said Whitman in an apparent rebuke to Clinton. “We overcame the same objections, the same stalling and distortions, the same foot-dragging. We’ve heard it all. And in the end, we have won the battle of ideas in our states. Now it’s time to win the battle of ideas in Washington.”

The New Jersey governor opened her speech by ridiculing the length of Clinton’s: “Before I begin, let me assure you, I am not going to ask for equal time.” Her audience, which had just listened to the President’s 80-minute address, erupted in applause and laughter.

Republican officials said that Whitman was the first choice of Gingrich to make the GOP reply.

“Newt can get press any day of the week, but this was an opportunity to show the key role the governors are playing” in Republican priorities, said Tony Blankley, Gingrich’s spokesman. “This is no longer Congress throwing out ideas and letting governors live with them; it’s about the party working with them, in partnership.”

Republicans said Tuesday that the drafting of Whitman’s speech was something of a partnership as well, between Whitman, Gingrich and Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour. As late as Tuesday afternoon, the GOP leaders were exchanging suggestions.

Whitman, a moderate Republican who unseated a Democratic governor weakened by a tax-weary electorate, has won a national following. Her 1993 victory over James J. Florio was seen as an early sign of the GOP resurgence of last November. Now enjoying approval ratings of more than 60% in her own state, Whitman is widely considered a potential vice presidential candidate in 1996.

But it was not until Tuesday that a wide American audience got its first look at the woman Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) called “the epitome of what the new Republican Party is--visionary, upbeat and committed to reducing the size of government and expanding the responsibility of states and communities and individuals.”

Whitman’s response came just a day after New Jersey’s first female governor stood before state lawmakers and announced that she would keep her campaign promise, a year ahead of schedule, to cut New Jersey income taxes by a total of 30%.