When it comes to the current national budgeting crisis, Bob Barr takes the long view.
It’s fitting for a man who has had several political lifetimes and is now attempting a congressional comeback in the seat vacated by Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Marietta Republican seeking to move up to the Senate.
But for one of President Bill Clinton’s primary inquisitors who was known as a bombastic member of the right wing during his time in Congress, urging Republicans to “be responsible” is a bit of a twist.
In an interview Friday morning, as House and Senate Republicans tinkered with deals with the White House to reopen the government, Barr told his party to think big.
“What I would hope Republicans would continue to do is not put all their eggs in one basket and move forward on a number of different fronts, some very publicly, some very quietly, and not to be blinded by short-term goals,” Barr said.
“Keep in mind: What is your endgame? The endgame is to truly make significant progress on reducing the debt and start the process at long last of substantive reform to so-called entitlement programs.”
Barr was a House freshman during the last shutdown under Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia. In his fourth term, Barr was booted from Congress after a redistricting-influenced 2002 primary with fellow GOP Rep. John Linder.
The ensuing decade saw Barr leave the Republican Party, become the Libertarian Party’s standard-bearer in the 2008 presidential election, then return to the GOP and run for Congress again.
Barr, of Smyrna, is locked in a fascinating clash of personalities in the 11th District Republican primary with state House Republican Whip Ed Lindsey of Buckhead, state Sen. Barry Loudermilk of Cassville and businesswoman Tricia Pridemore of Marietta.
Lindsey’s campaign, in particular, has attacked Barr for his wandering partisan eye. Barr says he’s never strayed from the core tenets of conservatism and the tea party-influenced GOP of today suits him well.
But Barr’s political roots are in the Gingrich Revolution, and he was best known for being one of the House managers of Clinton’s impeachment.
He still has some Clinton nostalgia, at least when it came to his willingness to bargain with Gingrich. President Barack Obama has been less willing to negotiate when the terms involve the new health care law or a possible federal debt default. Barr said he’d urge Obama to chat with Clinton.
Barr dismissed the notion that Republicans lost politically in the 1995-96 shutdown, which ended with Clinton agreeing to balance the budget within seven years, then winning a fairly easy re-election.
Barr credited the shutdown with leading to the welfare overhaul and a cut in the capital gains tax in subsequent years.
“I think all of those were a very clear outgrowth of the ‘95-‘96 shutdown process,” Barr said. “And again, because the leadership recognized then that the shutdown was not the endgame. They were looking — we were looking — toward something in a larger perspective, a longer-term game.”
In the short term during this shutdown, Republicans are getting walloped in the polls. Appearing on CNN on Friday, Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia called the shutdown "a dumb idea."
But Barr said the fight over the law known as Obamacare — led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, among others — was worth having, though attacking the law should be “a bargaining chip” rather than the only goal.
And he signaled that some of the Republicans willing to careen over the economic cliff should step back.
“Newt understood and Republicans need to continue to understand it’s not a zero-sum game,” he said. “Yes, you have to hit hard, but you have to fight on a number of different fronts. You have to be responsible.”
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