REPUBLICANS ONLY PLAY DEFENSE

The Republican Party these days is like a football team with a great
defense but a terrible offense. If they win the coin toss at the start of
the game, they're the kind of team that would elect to kick and not to receive.

By hugging the Bush position on the war on terror and not repeating their
mistake in opposing the Gulf War in 1991, the Democrats have effectively
removed the issue from the political debate. Every issue remaining on the
table has a built-in Democratic skew.

On virtually every single issue before the Congress, Republicans are on the
defensive: healthcare, Medicare coverage of drugs, campaign finance reform,
Enron, 401(k) reform, global warming, presidential privilege, deficits, the
Social Security "lockbox" and everything else.

Only on education reform and tax cuts, both already passed, did they have
any offense at all. Now those fights are history.

Not that the Republicans are bad at playing defense. They're actually quite
good. Sometimes the GOP's defense is so proficient that it scores points as
on an interception or a fumble. But the party simply cannot score when it
has the ball.

Just as Winston Churchill said after Dunkirk, that "wars are not won by
evacuations", so the Republican Party cannot stay on defense and hope to
prevail in the 2002 elections.

The Republicans need some issues.

Energy supply won't do because the Democratic comeback on conservation,
alternative fuels and the environment makes the issue a left-leaning one
however the GOP tries to spin it.

Defense spending won't work because the public isn't sold on the idea of a
strategic missile defense and the other issues are too clouded and
technical to permit a good offense.

The Republicans need to look at two key areas to provide some congressional
offense: immigration reform and student drug use.

Terrorism has put new life in the immigration issue. Republicans should
back a moratorium on student visas, a ban on any immigration at all (except
for political asylum) from terror-sponsoring nations, and the use of motor
vehicle stops to spot illegal aliens. Democrats can be counted on to oppose
all three proposals and make voters steam.

Democrats won't support a ban on student visas because of their links to
academic institutions that depend on foreign students' tuition. They won't
support a ban on immigration from terror nations because of their worries
about civil liberties. Concerns about racial profiling will convince the
left to oppose using motor vehicle stops to spot illegal aliens.

Voters, on the other hand, will see these steps as wise, just and closely
linked to the need to keep terrorists out of America. Had they been in
effect before 9-11, most of the hijackers would not have been in the United
States to begin with.

Increasingly, the links between terrorism and drug use are becoming
obvious. The Taliban supported itself with heroin revenues, and the
Colombian guerillas are terrifying South America with their drug-funded
terrorist armies.

Americans are increasingly focused on curbing drug use but they see the
futility of the current Drug Enforcement Administration strategy for doing so.

The Republicans should propose mandatory drug testing for all high school
students whose parents give permission. What worked in the Army can work in
schools. Bush's education accountability begs the question: If a student is
lagging in math or reading or science is it because he is using drugs?

The Democrats will reflexively oppose drug testing, citing student privacy
and civil liberties worries. But by adding a requirement that parents
consent to the drug testing, Republicans can make the proposal family
friendly and overcome these objections.

Bush has his hands full with the war on terror. One hopes Iraq is the next
stop and European cold feet won't deter him from his sacred mission. He
doesn't have the time to launch the kind of domestic issues that the
Republican Party needs to win congressional majorities.

The Republican leadership on Capitol Hill must take matters into their own
hands and launch some offensive issues and watch the Democrats squirm for once.