Posted on 11/06/2013 6:15:48 AM PST by cotton1706
JACKSON — The California-based Tea Party Express came to the Mississippi Capitol this morning to announce that it is endorsing state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican from Jones County, to replace long-time Republican Sen. Thad Cochran in the U.S. Senate.
Amy Kremer, chairwoman of the Tea Party Express, compared McDaniel favorably to congressional Tea Party darlings Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. McDaniel will empower the Tea Party to break up the “good old boy network” of entrenched Republicans such as Cochran, thus “sanitizing the U.S. government,” Kremer said.
McDaniel, chairman of the Mississippi Senate Conservative Coalition, is a “true constitutional conservative,” Kremer added. “… He believes in state’s rights.”
The endorsement underscores a growing rift between Republican moderates and the far-right wing of the GOP, represented by the Tea Party. The right-wing of the party sees any negotiation or diplomacy as a negative, and they continue to push for drawing hard lines beyond which they refuse to go. Those hard lines were evident in the recent 16-day partial federal government shutdown, which cost the U.S. economy $24 billion and came dangerously close to the United States defaulting on debts it had already incurred.
Republican stalwarts such as strategist Karl Rove do not see the Tea Party’s tactics—which often take the form of GOP party infighting instead of mounting campaigns against Democrats—as a winning strategy. Nevertheless, the Tea Party faithful seem to see themselves as the only true representatives of the American people.
“We believe if you want to effect change you have to change the players,” Kremer said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonfreepress.com ...
I need a yardsign
Has Cochran formerly announced that he’s running? IIRC..he said he was going to wait until next year to decide.
If McDaniel can gain some early traction and the writing is on the wall, Cochran may retire to save face. The question would then be whether Cochran would keep his mouth shut or follow the pattern of other GOP establishment figures and either run against McDaniel in the general election or, as we saw in the Virginia governor’s race, actively campaign for the Democrat. The GOP-e is a bastion of soreloserdom. Any conservative who loses a primary is expected to get on board and support the moderate, but the GOP seems to have unlimited toleration for “moderates” who refuse to accept primary results.
It seems it is his style to wait until the last minutes. Has he debated anyone in the past 30 years?
I haven’t seen a yardsign yet, I do have some small bumper stickers.
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