HAVING LEARNED NOTHING FROM MAVERICK AND MITT:

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman is calling for common-sense health care solutions, including health savings accounts. He wants an energy program that approves the Keystone XL pipeline and opens up federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf. He urges tax reform, both individual and corporate, to spur economic growth. He'd stop the EPA from over-regulating greenhouse gases and destroying the coal industry. And he calls for education choice that allows parents to use federal dollars to send their kids to the schools they want.

Sens. Mike Lee and Marco Rubio have put serious policy papers on the table. And Rep. Paul Ryan has a new anti-poverty agenda that would provide a real Republican makeover, and he's keeping up the fight against corporate welfare and crony capitalism.

The venerable George Schulz published a plan to get America moving again. It talks about tax reform, regulatory rollbacks, a Federal Reserve monetary rule and much stronger defense. And former Sen. Phil Gramm echoes a plan set forth by fiscal expert Avik Roy, in which the Obamacare exchanges are turned into free-market platforms without any federal mandates.

And numerous Republicans in both houses favor immigration reform, as long as it emphasizes border security, and then moves to work permits, increased visas and conditional legalization.

These are all good ideas, and there are plenty more. But so far the Republican leadership is playing small ball.

Yes, they talk about the Keystone pipeline. And they want accelerated rules for overseas trade, faster federal reviews of natural-gas exports and repeal of Obamacare's medical-device tax. Fine. But they need visionary priorities and a true national agenda.

It doesn't have to be a 75-page policy-wonk booklet. But there needs to be something concrete.

Sen. Ron Johnson frets that the permanent political consulting class is using this as a "rejection election." In other words: "We're not Obama." 

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