Dispatches From The Front Lines of the GOP's Very Uncivil War

December 16, 2013

All Out War Breaks Out In GOP Over Budget
(headline from the Washington Times)

...And here are some dispatches just in from the front lines of that war:

Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth.....“If Republicans work with Democrats to pass this deal, it should surprise no one when Republican voters seek alternatives who actually believe in less spending when they go to the ballot box.”

Redstate.com’s Erick Erickson.....“His temper tantrum today had very little to do with the present fight, but the next fight....He’s been staffing up for the immigration fight in the House. Today, he fired the first real shots in that battle. He’s done as Speaker...”

GOP Congressional candidate Don Bongino (Maryland, 6th District) on Facebook...GOP establishment, I am serving you with divorce papers. Bathe in your titles and power now, but understand that I, and many others, have dedicated our lives to draining the dirty water from the bathtub. Consider yourself served.”

Colorado GOP gubernatorial candidate (and former congressman Tom Tancredo)....“By this budget deal and their gratuitous, over-the-top attacks on conservative critics, Boehner and the House GOP leadership have declared war on the conservative wing of the Republican Party. How this strategy translates into Republican victory in the 2014 and 2016 elections is a mystery to everyone outside the beltway.”

Heritage Action Communications Director Dan Holler....."This is absurd. Only in Washington could you have guys who go to PAC fundraisers at swanky restaurants accuse outside groups of doing something for fundraising. It is one of those petty attacks that is intended to shift the conversation away from the policy.”

The media wires are sizzling with preparations for Republican intra-party warfare. The conflict has been building for years, intensifying for months. And, according to the conservative magazine Commentary, this war’s “Fort Sumter” moment occurred at a luncheon in early October. Here are excerpts from Commentary’s very revealing insider report on what happened behind closed doors:

“On the second day of the wildly controversial government shutdown, GOP senators gathered for a private midday meal to discuss their next steps. Kelly Ayotte, elected by New Hampshire voters in 2010 as a Tea Party darling, stood up and walked toward her Texas colleague Ted Cruz. She was waving the printout of a mass email sent by the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), a group closely identified with Cruz. The email harshly denounced 25 GOP “traitors” who “betrayed their principles.”

"Listing such conservative stalwarts as Ayotte, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, John Thune of South Dakota, and John Cornyn of Texas, the email condemned their insufficiently implacable opposition to ObamaCare and scolded them for “giving Democrats the power to implement this terrible law.”

"Declaring that 'most Republicans promise to stand up for conservative principles during the campaign, but then let us down after they’re elected,' the SCF went on to “thank Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) for their extraordinary courage.”

“A startled Cruz had to muster some of that extraordinary courage to answer an emotional Ayotte, who struck a third solon at the scene as “especially furious.” Ayotte demanded: 'Will you disown this awful thing that’s aiming to hurt the majority of your colleagues?' Cruz replied: 'I will not,' thus provoking a response that several of those present later described to the press as a “lynch mob.”

Cruz apparently backtracked a bit later, telling Republican Senate colleagues he would stop trying to defeat them in their primary elections. But the fact is, his tea party troops already are on the march. Seven GOP Senators facing reelection in 2014 already have right wing primary election challengers. Even more Senate primary challenges are likely.

In at least 10 other Senate contests where incumbents are retiring or where Democrats are running for reelection, radical right candidates are gearing up for intense efforts, many of them with big bucks from national organizations. Dozens of Cruz disciples also are trying to take out fellow Republicans for U.S. House seats.

The Republican Party conducted what it called an “autopsy” after losing the 2012 elections and concluded that it had strayed too far to the extreme right. Now the party’s involved in what cannot help but be a full-blown uncivil political war aimed at moving the party even farther out of the mainstream.

Whatever hope the GOP had for avoiding an electoral showdown was trashed by the government shutdown engineered by Ted Cruz. The battle is now on, intensified into full fury by Paul Ryan’s budget deal and John Boehner’s declaration of independence.

Note to TV talking heads and other political pundits and to political writers and editors: Obamacare will not be the defining issue of the 2014 elections. That issue will be whether the GOP will survive as major political party.

(Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com)