Right flanks join to push conservative goals

Politico ^ | 27 Oct 2013 | BURGESS EVERETT

[mandaladon]

The once private club of House and Senate conservatives is now public — and powerful.

Conservatives have always been vocal about their priorities but have rarely coordinated their efforts across both sides of the Capitol in public. But led by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, whose attacks on Obamacare sparked a 16-day government shutdown, a bicameral GOP caucus has emerged as a congressional power bloc increasingly comfortable with trying to seize the driver’s seat of the Republican agenda. Building on the foundation laid by tea party godfather Jim DeMint, the right flanks of the House and Senate have been getting together for months — or in some cases years — to design an agenda around trimming food stamp benefits, impairing Obamacare, hacking away at spending and other reliable red meat. The informal group is viewed suspiciously by establishment Republicans and those in leadership, but conservatives say there’s nothing to hide.

“If they were secret, we wouldn’t have done it at Tortilla Coast,” said Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), referring to a meeting at the Capitol Hill eatery with Cruz and other conservatives two days before a crucial debt ceiling deadline this month. “We were very transparent that we were talking to one another.”

First elected to Congress in the mid-1990s and elected for a second stint in 2012, Salmon remembers the days when the bicameral conservative caucus could have been crammed into a minivan. Now there are sufficient numbers in the House majority to tank House leadership’s best-laid plans if deemed necessary — as they demonstrated repeatedly during the fall fiscal debates when they forced leadership to shelve several plans that were derided for not being conservative enough.

[mandaladon]

The appearances by Cruz and Lee on the House side exemplified how comfortable a number of tea party-flavored senators have become using the upper chamber’s big microphone to attack Democrats and, increasingly, Republicans in the Senate deemed insufficiently conservative. ................RINOs beware you're about to become extinct

[FlingWingFlyer]

The commies appear to be getting worried that once the GOP goes down, they won’t have any GOOBers to push around anymore. Communism needs a “bad guy” to survive. The GOP is the communists’ boogey man used to scare the uninformed ignorant.

[Fai Mao]

I think they are worried that some one might start actually confronting them.

I find it weird that a lot of the “leftist” I know are actually almost as afraid of government as they are big-business. The problem is they think the Republicans are actually the party of big, intrusive government.

When I can talk to them, in their occasional lucid moments, it boils down to sex. They think the Republicans are going to force women to get married and have children with just one husband and this is scary to them.

I kid you not it is that simply. They want to live immorally and see Republicans as a threat to screwing around.

[DustyMoment]

. . . . a bicameral GOP caucus has emerged as a congressional power bloc increasingly comfortable with trying to seize the driver’s seat of the Republican agenda. Building on the foundation laid by tea party godfather Jim DeMint, the right flanks of the House and Senate have been getting together for months — or in some cases years — to design an agenda around trimming food stamp benefits, impairing Obamacare, hacking away at spending and other reliable red meat.

I'll reserve judgment until I see proof positive that these folks are actually able to work together to wrest control of the GOP from The GOPe. So far, the only thing the Bawlin' Boehner and McConnell wing of the GOPe has been able to do as a group is find better ways to cave to zero and/or Hairy Reed and the Dems.

While Sen. Cruz is a definite force to be reckoned with, I fear that too many others in the GOPe (RINOs) are too comfortable being Dem doormats and will oppose anything that threatens to change the status quo!!

[Maceman]

“I’m fine with not talking about Obamacare right now because the American people are experiencing it,” Stutzman said.

WRONG! Have we learned NOTHING from Saul ALinsky after he successfully engineered the virtually complete takeover of our nation by leftist totalitarianism?

NEVER LET A GOOD CRISIS GO TO WASTE. The Democrats and Obama and Obamacare are in crisis now. This is the time to hit them harder on the failure of Obamacare, and its tragic cost to the American people in dollars, in access to healthcare, and in the disappearance of personal privacy and liberty.

You attack when the enemy is weak.

[Ray76]

And the disappearance of 700 million to Michelle’s friend.

Why was she given a no-bid contract? Especially one worth 700 million?

[ModelBreaker]

“The problem is they think the Republicans are actually the party of big, intrusive government.”

Well, they have a pretty good historic case for that proposition. OTOH, from their perspective, the Republicans can be counted on to destroy anyone who actually challenges big, intrusive government.

[GeronL]

2 guys in the Senate and a handful in the House sure are powerful, lol

[Graewoulf]

What do y’all know about “ - - - Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.)?”

Is he a Red Ink Republican?

Is he a Democrats’ Republican like McCain always is?

Is he a committed Cave-In RINO?