Luntz already has a possible name—the Declaration of Re-Independence. He says he got the idea in conversation with conservative commentator Laura Ingraham and has a concrete set of principles at the ready.

“It would have planks for a balanced budget, an amendment to have a supermajority for tax increase, and it would oppose a mandate for health care,” said Luntz recently, by phone from Taipei, where he said he was working with the National Basketball Association.

A Daily Beast survey of six of the original architects and beneficiaries of the strategy—including head contractor Newt Gingrich—indicated it’s a course of action worthy of serious consideration. Gingrich, who declined to be interviewed for this story, was asked by the Daily Beast about the need for a new contract after a speech at Harvard University last Thursday. “I’d be in favor of considering it in the fall of 2010,” Gingrich said. “Remember we didn’t launch the contract until late September. We literally don’t know today what the issues will be next September or October.”