Was the GOP “Pizza Party” Just a Romney PR Stunt?

The National Council for a New America launched its “listening tour” at a pizza parlor in Arlington, Virginia on Saturday, May 2. Who are the Republicans leading the NCNA? Besides the Congressional leadership, the group’s “national panel of experts” includes former Governor Mitt Romney, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, former Governor Jeb Bush, Governor Bobby Jindal, Governor Haley Barbour, and Senator John McCain. They have now been joined by Governor Sarah Palin and supposedly will be by Governor Mark Sanford, though neither of the two (nor McCain or Jindal) attended the pizza party.

An odd list?

There’s Cantor, who’s a fresh face in contrast to Republican Leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. There’s Bobby Jindal, a definite rising star. There’s John McCain, still doing his part as the former standard bearer of the party, and Jeb Bush, who would very probably have been the 2008 nominee but for his last name. But let’s look more closely.

Bobby Jindal will very probably not run for President in 2012 (he only became constitutionally eligible for the office in 2006!); he has said his focus is Louisiana and Hurricane Katrina recovery. Jeb Bush declined to run for the Senate and seems unlikely to run for President in 2012. Most of the Jeb organization in Florida quietly (some, not so quietly) supported Romney. Eric Cantor, while considered for Vice President in 2012, seems happy in the House; if anything, he would face pressure to enter Virginia politics if Bob McDonnell loses the governor’s election this year. And it reportedly took a phone call from McCain for Governor Palin to agree to join the effort.

What is the NCNA supposed to do? According to a letter sent out by the core team, as reported in the Washington Post:

“The NCNA will bring together citizens from across the country to begin a dialogue with the American people through a series of forums, town halls, and an online effort that will engage people in a discussion to meet our common challenges and build a stronger country through common-sense ideas,” the letter says. “The NCNA will be a dynamic, forward-looking organization that will amplify the common-sense and wisdom of our fellow citizens.”

Rather than being prescriptive, the NCNA writes, “Instead, we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are. Since January, the President and the Democratic Majority in Congress have – rightfully so – put forward their plan for the future, now we must listen, learn and lead through an honest, open conversation with the American people that will result in building policy proposals that will yield the best results for our nation’s long-term success.”

If one was planning a leadership council of prominent Republicans for all these things, you’d think there would be a broader list. You’d think you’d want to have a person who won five terms as governor (Mike Huckabee) instead of (or at the very least in addition to) a person (Romney) who was a one-term governor who almost certainly would have lost had he tried for reelection. If one is talking about reaching out and broadening the party to new constituencies, it’s good to have Jeb Bush, but what about a prominent moderate Republican woman like Governor Jodi Rell of Connecticut? Or former Ohio Representative Deborah Pryce? Linda Lingle of Hawaii?

And if one is going to talk about “policy prescriptions that we are going to propose,” you’d think you’d want Newt Gingrich there (whatever his other faults, Newt is always brimming with solutions). Newt was reportedly asked to join after the fact, but his picture isn’t on the NCNA’s website yet.

If you’re trying to say, “hey, we want to put these bad times behind us,” you’d think you’d want a dynamic young economic conservative like Paul Ryan of Wisconsin rather than just a governor who made a great deal of money from management consulting and fund management.

And if the meeting is supposed to focus on “bread and butter” issues (“Cantor said he wanted to focus the meeting on ‘bread and butter’ issues such as the rising costs of education and health care, which resonate the most with Americans right now.”), and if this is “a caucus of Congressional leaders gathering the expertise of national leaders and doers,” you’d think you’d want to have the coiner of the term “Sam’s Club Republicans,” Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

And if someone at the event asks, about education, “What are you going to do for people who didn’t do so great on the SAT and have aspirations to college? They’re the people who need help. We’re caught out there in the wind because college expenses have gone up,” then you’d think you’d would want to have a person (Huckabee again) who was criticized from the right for his “compassionate conservative” positions, which included raising a few state taxes and fees to improve his state’s education.

So to recap, the experts panel includes two people who will almost certainly not run in 2012 (three counting Cantor – unless he’s running for Vice President), arguably the worst political representative of social conservatives, and arguably the worst political representative of economic conservatives (Sanford publicly pushed his opposition to accepting stimulus money despite South Carolina’s high unemployment rate).

And, of course, Romney.

They did not include (1) the person who beat Romney in the primaries (Huckabee), (2) the person who was Palin’s runner-up for Vice President (Pawlenty), (3) people like Rell, Lingle, and Price (all of whom endorsed McCain), and (4) other than Barbour, any number of other potential candidates for President, including Gingrich and Governor Huntsman of Utah, a successful two-term Governor now term-limited.

At the event, Jeb Bush said that “it was time for the Republican party to give up its ‘nostalgia’ for the heyday of the Reagan era.” But it’s also worth remembering that in that Kennedy debate, Romney said, “Look, I was an Independent at the time of Reagan/Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan/Bush.” Apparently it’s a whole lot easier to move beyond Reagan if one was never there in the first place.

And look at this video, which includes a (far too lengthy) montage of the experts panel. Cantor’s in the center – fine, it’s his group – but who has the prime position on the right, to which eyes naturally gravitate? You guessed it. And no, it’s not alphabetical.

Here’s CNN on NCNA:

Sources familiar with the effort say it was born of conversations between Cantor and the members of the experts panel. After Bush and Romney agreed to take part, the conversations expanded and the idea won the blessing of both the House and Senate GOP leadership. Additional town halls are planned in the weeks ahead, each likely dedicated to a specific issue, with health care, the economy, energy and national security leading the issues menu the group says it hopes to discuss heading into the 2010 midterm elections, and possibly beyond.

“And possibly beyond”?

What’s going on here? It’s clear from the CNN story that Cantor spoke with Bush and Romney, but then what? Were any other leaders besides those listed invited to join the panel of experts? Did anyone decline? Who are the consultants involved here, anyway? Who paid for the event? Or is NCNA, then, an attempt to have another vehicle to push the party towards Romney three years out? It’s great to have a “dialogue,” but what happens to the signatures – and the email addresses? One day, will an email from Romney 2012 arrive? Or might the “solutions” become the centerpiece of a Romney book?

Everyone’s saying up and down that this isn’t about 2012 but about “solutions” and “listening.”

I wonder.