O.C.’s Congressional Team Cheers ‘Contract,’ First 100 Days of GOP Control

WASHINGTON —  Returning to the steps of the nation’s Capitol where they had signed the “contract with America” last fall, most of Orange County’s congressional delegation joined in the celebration Friday marking the end of the first 100 days of the Republican-controlled Congress.

“It sort of feels like a birthday party,” Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) told the rally. “Today, I feel as if truly I have died and gone to heaven.”

Cox, a member of the House leadership team and one of the featured speakers at the ceremony, highlighted some of the accomplishments of the first GOP House in 40 years.

The Republicans, he said, were a team united by their desire “to fulfill the promises we made.”

It was also his job to put a positive spin on the one contract item that failed to win the required two-thirds vote in the House: a constitutional amendment limiting the number of years members of the House and Senate can serve.

Cox said the House fulfilled its promise by bringing to the House floor a “first-ever” vote on the issue.

“Not only did we have a first-ever vote, but a majority of the incumbent members of Congress, for the first time ever, are on record supporting term limits,” Cox said.

The only Orange County representative absent from the ceremony was Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who is preparing to formally announce next week his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

The other local Republican representatives waved American flags and cheered on cue. All loyal followers of Speaker Newt Gingrich, they heartily gave themselves a pat on the back.

“I want the American people to know that we reformed, first of all, the way in which the institution works and made it a more democratic--and that’s with a small ‘d’-- institution,” Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) said after the ceremony.

Echoing Gingrich’s challenge that the first 100 days was “only a beginning,” Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) said the GOP fight is “far from over. When we are done, you will have a smaller government that spends less, taxes less and regulates less.”

Rep. Jay C. Kim (R-Diamond Bar), who will head back to California for a three-week recess, said he wants voters to tell him what they do or do not like about the contract.

“We are not saying we are perfect. We would like to go back and get better ideas,” Kim said. “Maybe we can go back and revise (the package of laws just passed by the House) and modify it.”

All the hoopla over the completion of the House GOP agenda has been dampened in recent days by Democrats and some political observers who suggest that there is no guarantee that all of the bills approved as part of the contract will ever become law.

Lisa Richwine of States News Service contributed to this report.