Several of you have asked me follow up questions about Democrat leadership structure and why I think it is so important that we consider proposals to strengthen not weaken the republican conference leader position when we fully engage in this discussion this fall.
I advised several clients on organization design and execution in my management consulting career. Part of our process would include identifying practices of our client’s competitors and assessing their benefits and risk.I have reviewed the democrats’ conference rules and, should the Republican conference ever consider changes, they are worth bearing in mind. I am not advocating for any particular rule change at this time. I am presenting what I believe are fundamental reasons our conference behaves differently than theirs and providing food for thought on how we could address some of the frustrations of our members.
When I felt it important for the country or my state, from time to time last Congress I worked for the bipartisan bills that passed the Senate including the Bipartisan Safe Communities Act, which I raised at lunch last week. At the time that bill passed, some of you felt frustrated and argued that the Democrats would never do that, that they stay unified. The purpose of my letter today is not to argue about the policy choices themselves, as we each need to represent our own state to the best of our ability, but to point out something we should all reflect on. If the goal is to enhance more of that kind of discipline among us, then weakening the leader would be counter- productive. So, as we are considering these things, let’s bear the goal and the consequence of changes in mind.