If at first you don’t succeed . . .
On inauguration night four years ago, pollster Frank Luntz organized a strategy session for leading Republicans at the Caucus Room, a steakhouse in downtown D.C. The widely reported dinner has become the creation myth of the Obama opposition, in which Luntz, former speaker Newt Gingrich, Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Paul Ryan (Wis.) and other leading Republican lawmakers from both chambers plotted how to confront the president. The Republicans giddily came away from the four-hour dinner with a plan to weaken Obama through blanket opposition. …
Four years after the dinner, which was first reported by Robert Draper in his book “Do Not Ask What Good We Do,” Republicans are again bruised and in search of a way forward. But they still have to eat — and while they’re at it, they might as well get a little work done. [cont.]
Jason Horowitz, Washington Post