John Del Cecato

Last Sunday, Lady Gaga got tongues wagging yet again when she arrived at the Grammys stuffed inside an egg-shaped vessel.

As I interviewed for my first job as a Capitol Hill press secretary, a seasoned Washington staffer hit me with a question that caught me off guard.

It’s been said that government should be on the side of the little guy, because the big guys can take care of themselves, and they usually do. But this fall, Republicans have a message for disaffected big guys all across the country: Don’t worry — we’ve got your back.

In 2008, American voters made history. This November, congressional Republicans are trying to do it again.

Just two years ago this month, Barack Obama took to the stage at Invesco Field to accept his party’s nomination. In that speech, he outlined an ambitious agenda for change — reversing the economic and foreign policies of a Republican administration that had sent America spiraling in the wrong direction.

Ask any political operative what the hottest issue is today, and they’ll offer the same answer: jobs, jobs, jobs. (Some are so convinced of this fact that they can only utter the term in triplicate.)

In the fall of 1994, hundreds of Republicans stood on the Capitol steps to endorse the party’s Contract With America. The manifesto, chiefly crafted by House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), was devised to give voters a tiny peek at how a GOP Congress would change the status quo. The rhetoric that accompanied its unveiling was deliberately vague, but hinted at what was to come under a Speaker Gingrich.

In their quest to retake Congress, Republicans may have a powerful ally in their corner: China.

2010 is beginning to look like 1996.

What does the GOP have against the unemployed?