WASHINGTON – The last time House Republicans were this lost, they turned to Newt Gingrich to lead them from the wilderness. He put together a Contract With America to give voters a clear way to distinguish the D's from the R's.

With Republicans in a tight spot again, Dallas Rep. Jeb Hensarling is urging colleagues to take a similar approach.

It isn't enough, he said, merely to renew a commitment to fiscal restraint and conservative social stances, or provide a "toolbox" for members, as the GOP leadership did earlier this month.

The party needs a small, easily digestible set of core goals to rally around to stave off big losses this fall, in his view.

"There's nothing like getting hit over the head with a two-by-four and losing three special elections in a row to get your attention," Mr. Hensarling said. "We've got to be bigger and bolder than the other guys."

Since March, Republicans have lost three House seats, all in supposedly "safe" Republican districts. It's no exaggeration to say they're in a near-panic.

As chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative bloc that represents more than half the House GOP membership, Mr. Hensarling demanded and got a meeting last week where GOP lawmakers brainstormed a way out of their hole.

The eight-point prescription he offered got a semi-cool reception, but he's hoping to get consensus when Republicans reconvene after the Memorial Day break. He boiled his plan down to three central planks meant to reflect core principles that speak to the "hearts, minds, aspirations and pocketbooks of the American people."

•Pass a constitutional amendment to limit federal spending.

•Scrap the tax code, and replace it with a two-tiered flat tax that would fit on one page.

•Halt "earmarks," the special spending projects that lawmakers can insert into legislation.

Secondary ideas focus on health care, expanding domestic energy production, abortion, school choice, welfare reform and broad federal wiretapping authority to fight terror.

Of course, it's hard to hold down spending in the midst of a costly war. And Republicans, for all the hand-wringing over runaway spending, defected en masse just last week to override President Bush's veto of a pork-laden farm bill.

"I'm disappointed in that vote," Mr. Hensarling averred.

His plan isn't the only one floating around.

Rep. Kay Granger of Fort Worth – vice chairwoman of the House GOP conference – unveiled the official leadership proposal a week earlier. Initially dubbed the "Change You Deserve" agenda, it's now called "Change America Deserves." (Democrats helpfully pointed out that the first slogan was already in use to market Effexor, an antidepressant drug. How did they spot that so quickly? They did go through a rough patch in the first Bush term.)

The Granger plan is a 46-point set of ideas aimed at high gas prices, the time crunch facing workers with kids and aging parents, and other pocketbook issues. By design, it's meant for lawmakers to pick and choose, highlighting the elements they think would resonate best.

Mr. Hensarling doesn't want a "toolbox." He wants unifying ideas to define the GOP brand.

"Sooner as opposed to later, we had better come to decide, as a Republican conference, what does it mean to have an 'R' by your name in 2008," he said.

Isn't it a bit cheeky for backbench House members to try to set the party's agenda, when there's a presidential nominee?

"McCain has his own brand," Mr. Hensarling said. "I'm sitting here with House Republicans. ... We gotta do what we gotta do."

Even Texas Republicans such as Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions are distancing themselves from President Bush.

The president, Mr. Sessions told a group of eighth-graders visiting the Capitol last week from Akiba Academy in Dallas, "is doing everything he thinks is correct," and yet "the American people are fed up.... we've lost the House and Senate, and everybody hates George Bush."

The problem, Mr. Sessions said, is that the president hasn't reached out enough, on a host of issues.

"When I was the quarterback of the team," Mr. Sessions said, "if I came and told everybody, 'I don't care whether you like it or not, I'm going to do what I want to do,' my guys wouldn't block for me."