Her Royal Highness and the House of Commons: Maybe they did something right

Have you ever watched C-SPAN's coverage of the United Kingdom's House of Commons? If you have not, take a half hour out of your day on wednesday nights to watch their programme, Prime Minister's questions. As Robin Williams once said, "It's like Congresss with a two drink minnimum" (So I guess Sen. Ted Kennedy would fit right in).

But strangely, there is a possibility that the British Lower House, for that matter British party politics in general, has a model that the Republican party can strive to replicate in America: unadulterated party leadership.

Most people know that the Prime Minister of England is currently Gordon Brown, who is the proverbial head of the Labour Party. Currently, that is equivalent in most senses to President George Bush as the symbolic head of the Republican Party (no matter how many Congressmen running for reelection ran away from him).

But walk down the street in England and ask them who the leader of the minority and opposition party, the Conservatives, is and they will be able to tell you David Cameron. Walk down any street in any town in American and ask 10 Republicans (if you can find that many today) who the RNC chairman is, or more simply who their state chairman is. If you want to be really daring, ask them who the minority leader in the House is. I guarentee you 8 of those 10 won't be able to tell you any of them, and maybe one of the other two will be able to give you more than one name.

British minority parties have clear leadership. They have someone who stands at a podium and says, in no uncertain terms, I am the leader, and this is what we believe. Howard Dean followed this model to a certain extent during his term with the DNC over the past few years. The next RNC chairman needs to do this to an even greater level.

The rank-and-file of the Republican party will be looking for leadership over the next two years to regain ground in the capital, and in the state legislatures. Whether it is the RNC chairman, the state party chairman, or even the town committee chairman, it needs to be clear who is in charge and what the direction of the party needs to be in that area. Without clear leadership, no one will know where to follow.