House Minority Whip Eric Cantor wants a document, akin to Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract With America, that identifies specific pieces of legislation Republicans could pass if they win back the House. He thinks Republicans should “put up or shut up,” an aide close to the process said…

But Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who is leading the effort to craft the document, says that including specific legislation in the contract would smack of the backroom deals the GOP accuses Democrats of making, so “you won’t see it written out.”…

If the Republicans include too many specifics, especially on hot-button social issues important to their base, they risk turning off moderates and independents. And that’s assuming that they can get the entire House Republican Conference to agree on specific bills in the first place; not everyone, for example, would support a proposal to “repeal and replace” the Democrats’ health care bill…

“You can’t just make blanket statements without backing them up with something,” said lobbyist Robert Walker, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who was involved in authoring in the 1994 Contract With America, which was chock full of legislative language. “That’s how you get credibility. You’re no longer saying “no”; you have a specific agenda out there. You’ll take heat, no doubt; you’ll have the administration stand up and criticize you.”