WASHINGTON -- Witness the new Republican Party, champion of feeding programs for the poor and federally funded medical research.

Conservatives are cheering the House Republicans’ new strategy of passing “mini” bills to reopen popular programs, while White House officials and their allies dismiss the tactic as a doomed GOP effort to escape blame for the ongoing government shutdown.

The GOP’s aim is to get House Democrats on record in votes “opposing” the restoration of spending for federal initiatives such as national parks, cancer research, veterans and National Guard programs, FEMA and the National Weather Service, the Food and Drug Administration, nutrition and feeding programs for pregnant mothers and infants, and Head Start. The strategy blithely ignores the party’s own recent history, which is one of antagonism to many such programs. Indeed, the GOP has been crowing about spending rules -- the result of the sequestration deal two years ago -- that squeeze funds for the very items the GOP now claims it wants to champion.

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“This is just what Republicans need to be doing now,” said Grover Norquist, a key conservative strategist and head of Americans for Tax Reform. “You want to pile up these votes and put Democrats on record as opposing both the specific programs and the idea of compromise."