Posted on 03/21/2013 9:41:16 AM PDT by cotton1706
The messy politics of the Republican primary for Georgia’s open Senate seat has steamrolled its way into the Capitol.
The unruly race is roiling the state’s House delegation and causing problems for the GOP leadership.
Rep. Paul Broun — the only announced candidate to replace retiring Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss — is yanking much of the congressional delegation to the right and throwing their votes and the support of leadership into a daily flux.
The problem: There are four House Republicans interested in the Senate seat. But the Peach State delegation and GOP leaders say they have no idea what Broun is up to at any given time, causing agitation for the other three congressmen — Reps. Phil Gingrey, Jack Kingston and Tom Price.
It’s not that Broun is doing anything differently than he normally would, but now, it’s causing a ripple effect among his colleagues that wasn’t there before.
Broun, laughing with his face flushing deep red, acknowledged that Gingrey and Kingston are looking closely at how he votes.
“Imitation is the best form of flattery,” Broun chuckled.
Senate seats don’t come up too often, especially in a red state like Georgia, so primaries are contentious. And in this one, all of the candidates are seeking to run to the right of each other. How they vote on important legislation, from their party’s budget to the debt ceiling hike and the sequester, is being closely watched and could be used against them in a primary.
One of the first signs of trouble was a vote earlier this month on the continuing resolution to keep the government funded beyond March 27. Broun initially told GOP leaders, including Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), he was leaning toward supporting the bill.
But not only did he ultimately vote against the bill, but he also opposed the procedural motion to bring the bill to the floor — a nearly unheard of move by a member of the majority in House politics because it jeopardizes leadership’s control of the floor.
The dominoes then began to fall. Kingston and Gingrey ended up voting against both the procedural motion and the resolution itself. Price voted in favor of the rule and the CR.
Next up was the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills Act, a job-training bill promoted by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and sponsored by North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx. Broun told Foxx he would support the legislation, sources said, but then voted against the bill only after all other Georgia Republicans voted for it.
Foxx, a member of GOP leadership, was steamed at Broun.
Asked about the episode, Foxx smiled and said, “You have information, that’s all I’m going to say.”
Did she receive a satisfactory response for Broun’s change of heart? “No,” Foxx said. “No satisfactory response. Let’s leave it at that. I don’t like to talk about conversations I have with members.”
Then this week, as Republicans were rallying support for their 2014 budget, Broun took to the liberal New York Times editorial page to slam Rep. Paul Ryan’s spending plan, which he said “fails to seriously address runaway government spending, the most pressing problem facing our nation.”
The op-ed turned heads in leadership. On Wednesday, GOP leaders gave Broun a sheet of paper indicating that if he votes against the Ryan budget, he should also vote against the conservative Republican Study Committee budget, because it borrows nearly as much money.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/gop-leaders-not-so-peachy-on-paul-broun-votes-89164.html#ixzz2OC21aTdA
The whole article is worth it. Anybody that throws the republican leadership into fits and screws up their whip count deserves to be elected.
Pass the popcorn....
Kerry Bentivolio here in Michigan is another one of those freshmen who doesn’t appear to be intimidated by the house leadership. He’s been pretty solid.
This Guy belong in the Senate. Let’s spread the word, creepers.
If Boehner and Cantor don’t like Broun, I’m all for him.
I’m going to have to examine other candidates in the primary pretty deeply, because I’m going to have a hard time getting behind Broun. He’s not real friendly to Catholics and he’s not real friendly to IT (my living) either.
Paul Broun has been true to his core conservative beliefs in the House and its going to be really hard for anybody to run to right of him. He is my first choice for the senate seat with Price second. Gingrey and Kingston I’m not interested in at all.
Baseball legend John Rocker should enter the race to raise his profile and slam the amnesty RINOs.
Broun bump to the top. He has most of the correct enemies.
Broun bump to the top. He has most of the correct enemies.
Hildred, With all due respect, your comment re. Broun not friendly to IT is reminiscent of Johnny Isakson’s comment during town hall meeting before his first election.
I asked him if he supported the Fair Tax, he grimaced and remarked that he’d have to examine its impact on his HUGE and highly profitable real estate portfolio. He has yet to get back to me with an answer.
Hate to say this, but your comment smacks of the same sort of unenlightened self-interest exhibited by Johnny “The Statesman (NOT)” Isakson. I supported his opponent that and subsequent elections.
And, of course, we now have Isakson’s record as evidence of his “Statesmanship”.
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