10 years later: Scorecard mixed on Contract With America.(Dallas Morning News)

Byline: Carl P. Leubsdorf

It's been a decade since more than 300 Republican House members and candidates stood on the Capitol steps, vowed to end the long Democratic control of Congress and signed their "Contract With America."

To the surprise of most pundits, they won the House for the first time in 40 years and, over the next several years, implemented many of the contract's procedural reforms and substantive proposals.

But as its architects hailed its successes this week, they admitted some of its promise has faded.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich told an American Enterprise Institute forum the effort peaked with a 1997 balanced-budget pact between Congress and President Bill Clinton. Former Majority Leader Dick ...