These should be days of respectful reflection about the legacy of the late President Ronald Reagan, the father of today’s Republican Party.

Instead, as Congress prepares to accept a statue of the man whose presidency ushered in some three decades of conservative ascendancy, his party is engaged in a momentous debate about how to transform his legacy into a new era.

[Patrick] McHenry said, however, that the issues that drove Reagan — the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union, high tax rates, a welfare system that many said entrapped the poor — are gone and this has left the party struggling. “We have to use the same Reagan principles but the issue set has to meet today’s challenges,” he added.

Continue reading here: http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000003132074