Republicans should hold their heads high and be proud of what their party has accomplished.

That was the message Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Dist. 5) gave the county GOP at their annual Lincoln Day dinner Thursday.

Citing the leadership the Republican party has provided since retaking control of the U.S. Congress in 1995, Buyer said Republican ideals of small, more efficient, less intrusive government were put into practice and resulted in the current budget surplus.

"While the president may want to try and take responsibility for the current fiscal surplus, it was we Republicans who held his feet to the fire - even forcing a government shutdown to get sound budgetary practices in place," he said.

Other issues Buyer addressed in his 45-minute ad-libbed address included the military action under way in Kosovo, the proliferation of nuclear missile technology in the Peoples Republic of China, opening relations with Cuba and the post-impeachment political atmosphere in Washington.

He said President Clinton has failed to effectively articulate what policy the United States is pursuing in the current air strikes in Kosovo, and the justifications that have been given fail to convince him U.S. troops should be placed in harm's way.

"We in the United States are secure and we sometimes take that for granted," he said. "Indiana is under no threat of invasion from Illinois or Ohio - maybe Kentucky, but we know how to deal with that.

"But that security doesn't exist everywhere around the world," he added. "With the United States being the sole remaining superpower in the world, we should intervene only when it will provide intercontinental stability. When that stability isn't threatened, our allies in the region need to step up to the plate."

Despite his reservations over the rationale behind the U.S. involvement in the Kosovo crisis, Buyer said we must now follow through to preserve U.S. credibility around the world.

"The United States will be involved in that region for a generation. Now we're going to have to find a way out of the box he (Clinton) put us in," he said. "This is a quagmire, and I'm not very happy about it."

In regard to U.S.-China relations, Buyer said he does not support creating closer ties with the largest remaining communist government in the world. He criticized the Clinton administration for overlooking China's poor human rights record and for helping it gain the ability to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles in exchange for political contributions from Chinese and business interests.

"In the destablization of Asia, we do not have clean hands," he said. "This administration has flat-out authorized the transfer of technology that has enabled China to develop ICBMs, in direct contravention of our policy of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons."

Buyer said he would support re-opening relations with Cuba if Castro is willing to abide by an open-door policy for Cuban Americans in returning to the island nation to visit family and repatriating the assets their families lost in fleeing the Castro regime.

"We have had a closed-door policy with Cuba for a very long time. If Castro is willing to open up, I could support us doing the same," he said.

Finally, Buyer said the dire predictions for the Republican party in the wake of the impeachment acquittal of President Clinton are overblown, and it is the Democratic party that is in a weakened position due to their unwavering support of a weakened president.

"The post-impeachment period was the high-water mark for the Democrats. They sold their soul and integrity in order to win that impeachment battle," he said. "And while impeachment is in my rear-view mirror, there is one lesson for us to take out of it. That lesson is 'your character is your fate.'"

Buyer said the demonstrated lack of character on the part of President Clinton has reduced his ability to lead the country, and has damaged his party's chances of retaining the White House in 2000.

"The president is having trouble leading this nation and leading the world because he has expended all of his credibility," he said. "Because of that lack of credibility, Bill Clinton is no longer deserving of the benefit of the doubt all past presidents were due in questioning his policy decisions."

Buyer said the Democratic Party has essentially given up thoughts of retaining the presidency as evidenced by the lack of Democratic presidential contenders. However, they will make a concerted push to retake Congress, with the help of the labor unions and other liberal political organizations.

"The lobbying organizations may be giving up the White House because they want to buy back the seats to regain control of Congress by the Democrats," he said.

That will not occur, he added, as long as the Republican Party membership remains true to the ideals of the party and continues to build upon the accomplishments of the past five years.

"You should be proud to be Republicans, and proud of the Republicans in Congress, folks, because we created the surplus and we are going to save all of that budget surplus to save Social Security," he said. [[In-content Ad]]