Republicans divided on how to counter 'party of no' reputation in poll

Congressional Republicans are divided on how to change the public’s perception that they are not working with President Barack Obama.

According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted earlier this month, 58 percent of the 1,004 respondents said Republicans have not reached out enough to Obama.

Other data in that poll indicated the Republican Party has made gains on Democrats over the past year. But it still hasn’t been able to shake the “party of no” label.

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) said he is not losing sleep over the polling data.

The Peach State lawmaker contended in an interview with The Hill that GOP supporters, including the independents that elected Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) don't want Republican lawmakers "compromising" with Obama.

“Our constituents are overwhelmingly telling us do not compromise on legislation that is just increasing the size of government and the deficit. At this point Obama, [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] and [Majority Leader Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] are well-defined as big-government, big spenders and people don’t want us to reach out to that,” Kingston said.

Like Kingston, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said, “I’m not worried about this poll number.”

Other Republicans have a different view.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) recently said the GOP cannot simply be the party of no and must work with Democrats to offer remedies to the nation’s problems.

Graham acknowledged “there a few [Republicans] who just want to say, ‘We’re not going to do anything his year.’”

And Republican pollster Whit Ayres late last month said GOP lawmakers could boost their poll numbers by crafting legislative solutions. He did warn Republicans not to endorse proposals that would significantly expand government programs.

Some Republicans say they have been reaching out to Democrats, but they keep getting rebuffed.

A GOP leadership aide said, “We’ve had regular conversations with [Obama], …Here’s the problem: when Democrat leadership in the House, in our instance, writes the bill without any meetings with us or any input and then says vote on it, and then we have to go to a meeting with the president, who says, ‘Why don’t you like this bill?’ That’s not how bipartisanship works.”

Democrats have responded to similar charges saying that Republicans simply recycle old ideas that have not worked and that they really don’t want to negotiate.

Inhofe said it is important for Republicans to show up at the Feb. 25 summit on healthcare reform at the White House.

House GOP officials have expressed skepticism about the meeting, asking the White House a series of questions before they commit to attending.

Inhofe said, “I think for appearance purposes it would be better to go ahead and do it because there are a lot of people answering [the Washington Post/ABC News] poll who think that Republicans just aren’t going to co-operate and that just isn’t true.”

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