Republican rips Bush for caving on principles

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By Stephen Dinan

A Republican House leader said Wednesday that President Bush and his party's congressional leadership caved on principles to help the top of their presidential ticket during the Wall Street bailout and that there could be a leadership purge if enough Republican lawmakers lose their seats next month.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, said Republicans need to immediately create better alternatives to Democrats' policies and cannot assume that their party will automatically recapture lost seats in 2010 if Sen. Barack Obama is elected president this year.

"That's the first thing we've got to get out of their heads. That's not how this works," Mr. McCotter told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. "You will lose all the votes. What you will then do is craft an alternative that hits real people and frames the debate."

Mr. McCotter, Michigan Republican, said Republicans expect to lose 10 to 30 House seats in the elections Tuesday and that the final total likely will determine the fate of the party´s current leadership.

"No one knows what number could be a trigger," he said.

"Everybody's waiting for the number to know what is possible or not possible if they're shooting at [House Minority Leader John A.] Boehner, if they're shooting at [House Minority Whip Roy] Blunt, if they're shooting at anyone. But they're not going to be out there making calls, they're going to wait until the number comes in."

The 43-year-old congressman frequently referred to his roots, both as a Detroit native and an Irish Catholic, saying the latter explained why he's not the sort to be optimistic about congressional Republicans' chances in the Tuesday elections.

He is in his first term as policy committee chairman, and said he hasn't been approached by other members seeking his support to oust the current leaders, though he said as a "Boehner guy" - a supporter of the Ohio Republican - he isn't likely to be told. If an effort is under way, he said, it will surface after the elections so they don't appear to be putting their own prospects ahead of the party's.

Asked whether anyone else is ready to take the leader's role, Mr. McCotter was blunt: "There isn't."