The Continued Fracturing of the GOP

‘You’re F*cking With Us, Right?’ Jon Stewart Delivers Stinging Takedown of Ted Cruz Filibuster

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After listening to part of Ted Cruz‘s 21-hour Nazi-invoking filibuster, Jon Stewart was convinced that whatever Cruz was speaking out against must be nothing less than the zombie apocalypse. So he was more than a little confused at how Cruz was going on about Obamacare, mocking Cruz’s constant tangents and his apparent lack of seriousness about really solving America’s health care crisis.

And, of course, the Dr. Seuss.

Cruz pledged to talk until he could stand no more. Stewart shot back, “Easy for you to take that kind of physical risk, you have government health care.”

Stewart went through all the bizarre pop culture references Cruz made, from Ashton Kutcher and Duck Dynasty to White Castle and Star Wars. But what really killed Stewart was Cruz’s somewhat ironic invocation of Green Eggs and Ham.

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“So to express your opposition to Obamacare, you go to the book about a stubborn jerk who decides he hates something before he’s tried it, and when he finally gets a taste, he has to admit after he’s tasted it, ‘This is pretty fucking good.’”

Stewart then went after Cruz on the specifics of his health care objections, and ended the segment with an epic reading of a fake Dr. Seuss book called The Bore-ax, containing phrases like “showboatiest blab” and “hours of mouth masturbation.”

Video is at the link.

Long Live the GOP civil war!   Crazy man Cruz went directly to Limbaugh after his stunt...
Rush Limbaugh: Ted Cruz fighting for ‘soul’ of GOP

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If you want to find Sen. Ted Cruz’s biggest fans in the wake of his marathon speech on the Senate floor against Obamacare, just listen to conservative talk radio hosts.

Coming on air after the Texas Republican wrapped his 21 hour, 19 minute long talkathon, Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that Cruz is “doing exactly what he was elected to do” and is “fighting for the soul of his party.”

“He’s fighting for the American people, even those that don’t know he’s fighting for them,” he said on Wednesday’s show.

Limbaugh also blasted the implication by the “Washington establishment, the Republican establishment” that Cruz has been influenced by talk radio to pursue the effort to defund Obamacare.

“He doesn’t need any pressure,” he said. “The man is not a coward. Ted Cruz isn’t afraid of anybody. The real question is, what is the Republican establishment afraid of?”


Meanwhile, Glenn Beck on Wednesday morning praised Cruz as a “machine” for his marathon effort, describing him as “presidential” and “so cool under pressure.”

“Cruz does not have a hair out of place, and he is a machine,” Beck said on his radio show. “This guy I watched last night on the floor of the Senate and I thought, finally a debate on healthcare and a discussion on healthcare that was reasoned, was telling the truth, wasn’t yelling and screaming. It was just, ‘Look, this is the fact. This is what’s gonna happen.’”

Beck also told his Twitter followers late Tuesday night that “Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul are the least ‘political’ and best men we have sent to the senate in years. Ted Cruz for President 16.”

Radio host Mark Levin also said he supported Cruz’s effort, telling his listeners during Tuesday’s show that Cruz “speaks for millions of us.”

“The more people that hear Ted Cruz, the more people are going to like him,” Levin said. “He has hit a nerve.”

Levin applauded Cruz and Utah Sen. Mike Lee for their “absolutely spectacular” efforts, likening the two to Jimmy Stewart’s character in Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

“Ted Cruz, some have said he’s Reaganesque. He is Reganesque. But he reminds me of Mr. Smith going to Washington,” Levin said on his show. “He’s Mr. Cruz going to Washington. As is Mike Lee Mr. Lee going to Washington. These people deserve our strong support.”

And nationally-syndicated conservative talker Mike Gallagher said his listeners completely support Cruz.

“Callers are all lining up behind Ted Cruz, as am I,” Gallagher told POLITICO. “After all, to criticize Cruz is to agree with Chris Matthews! The overwhelming majority of callers respect his willingness to fight.”

Gallagher added that “it seems to me that a lot of establishment Republicans who are blasting Sen. Cruz don’t seem to understand that he’s directing this towards the American people, not the inside-the-beltway types. We respect his passion and his dedication to trying to stop Obamacare any way he can.”

Conservative talker Hugh Hewitt tweeted on Tuesday that Cruz “is winning hearts and minds tonight. Some GOP senators may want to rethink votes” and called his marathon talk a “big and good and defining moment for him.”

And SiriusXM’s David Webb said Cruz’s effort is “an effective grassroots strategy” to “stop this train wreck on the American people.”

“What Ted Cruz is doing, even though it’s not technically a filibuster, he’s bringing Americans on board with what this really means to them,” the tea party activist and Fox News contributor told POLITICO in an interview. “The American people are catching on, and that’s where this matters in a large part right now.”

“Let’s face it, he’s going down with a fight,” he added.

And that’s something a Republican hasn’t done in quite a while, fellow SiriusXM Radio host Andrew Wilkow said. “We’re sick of getting told by the establishment that we all need to stay quiet so the party doesn’t look bad,” he said.

“We in the conservative movement haven’t seen Republicans do this is in a long time, go down with a fight. If you’re going to go down, go down with a fight,” Wilkow, who also hosts a one-hour nightly show Wilkow! on TheBlaze TV, told POLITICO. “I want Ted Cruz to go down with a fight. Hopefully, while the entire news cycle is focused on him, people will say, ‘I’ve got to go check this out for myself.’”

So you have all the hate radio crazies lining up behind Cruz to head over the cliff, while John McCain and other R's lash out at him on the Senate floor. I sure wouldn't want to be John Boehner this week  

Yeah, Cruz is a nutball. Right up there with Bachmann or Palin, and yet another shining example about how ignorant their base is since they don't recognize it. A 21 hour phony filibuster just to further his own career, rather than doing anything actually useful. "Vote for me! I'm a True Conservative!" ...and useless as ever.

As President Barack Obama said during a POTUS debate..."Please proceed"
October 1, 2013 - American Voters Reject GOP Shutdown Strategy 3-1, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Dems Up 9 Points In 2014 Congressional Races

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American voters oppose 72 - 22 percent Congress shutting down the federal government to block implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

Voters also oppose 64 - 27 percent blocking an increase in the nation's debt ceiling as a way to stop Obamacare, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

American voters are divided on Obamacare, with 45 percent in favor and 47 percent opposed, but they are opposed 58 - 34 percent to Congress cutting off funding for the health care law to stop its implementation.

Republicans support the federal government shutdown by a narrow 49 - 44 percent margin, but opposition is 90 - 6 percent among Democrats and 74 - 19 percent among independent voters.

President Barack Obama gets a negative 45 - 49 percent overall job approval rating, compared to his 46 - 48 percent score August 2.

American voters disapprove 74 - 17 percent of the job Republicans in Congress are doing, their lowest score ever, and disapprove 60 - 32 percent of the job Democrats are doing.

"Americans are certainly not in love with Obamacare, but they reject decisively the claim by Congressional Republicans that it is so bad that it's worth closing down the government to stop it," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"President Barack Obama enters this standoff over the budget with an edge over Congressional Republicans in the voters' eyes."

American voters trust President Obama more than Republicans in Congress on a number of issues:

63 - 26 percent on helping low income families;
51 - 38 percent on helping the middle class;
47 - 38 percent on handling health care;
47 - 42 percent on handling the economy.

It's gonna be a hoot watching these wingnut lunatics try to get out of the quicksand they eagerly waded into  

The next issue that the Kookoo right is on the wrong side of...
Majority of Americans want debt limit raised, poll finds

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By Jim Puzzanghera

7:45 a.m. CDT, October 2, 2013

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Americans want Congress to raise the nation's $16.7-trillion debt limit and would blame Republicans if it isn't, according to a poll released Wednesday.

About 56% of respondents said it would be bad for the country if the debt limit was not raised, the CNN/ORC International poll found. Just 38% said failure to increase the limit would be a good thing.

Asked who would be responsible if the limit were not raised, 53% said congressional Republicans and 31% said President Obama.

I suggest Nancy Pelosi start polishing her gavel  

I thought that this was interesting...

King: 30 to 40 GOP lawmakers refuse to admit legitimacy of Obama’s presidency

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Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday that there are about 30 to 40 Republicans in Congress who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency and are seeking to erase everything that’s happened during his administration.

This, coming from Peter King, of all people.  

So what's the response from the hate mongers on the right?

Judas Republican Peter King: Shows his RINO Obama enabling co-conspirator criminal colors

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Please read the news excerpt and notice the ridiculous reasoning of an elected federal legislator who does not recognize or act upon Obama’s illegitimate “presidency.”

Furthermore, Peter King is dishonest to equate President Clinton’s presidency with that of White House (usurper) occupier, Barack Hussein Obama.

Peter King is one of those elected officials who knows that Obama has usurped the White House US Executive Office by deceptive ID fraud. (Therefore, all that Obama has destructively done while in that office) is subject to nullification.

Man, these people are seriously fucked up.  Calling Peter King a Judas and a RINO is just absurd.  The Tea Party should just go ahead and start their own fucking party.  Because if they don't, they are going to find themselves on the outside looking in, very soon, at least IMHO.

As long as the mainstream Republicans continue to carry water for these lunatics, it's just going to get worse.  It's going to take political courage to rid the party of this rabble once and for all, but I really don't think that the GOP has any choice. The sooner they realize that, the better off they will be...

Scorpion wrote:

I thought that this was interesting...

King: 30 to 40 GOP lawmakers refuse to admit legitimacy of Obama’s presidency

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Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday that there are about 30 to 40 Republicans in Congress who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency and are seeking to erase everything that’s happened during his administration.

This, coming from Peter King, of all people.

 Peter King has always maintained that the birther movement is crazy.

Scorpion wrote:

So what's the response from the hate mongers on the right?

Judas Republican Peter King: Shows his RINO Obama enabling co-conspirator criminal colors

The author,Nathan Bickel,who apparently runs the site you linked to is also a firm believer that Sandy Hook was a "hoax".  

Scorpion wrote:

Man, these people are seriously fucked up.  Calling Peter King a Judas and a RINO is just absurd.  The Tea Party should just go ahead and start their own fucking party.  Because if they don't, they are going to find themselves on the outside looking in, very soon, at least IMHO.

I've thought for some time now that a 3rd party was a real possibility. Mark my words...If  someone like Chris Christie gets the POTUS nomination rather than Ted Cruz,these lunatics will go completely off the rails.

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As long as the mainstream Republicans continue to carry water for these lunatics, it's just going to get worse.  It's going to take political courage to rid the party of this rabble once and for all, but I really don't think that the GOP has any choice. The sooner they realize that, the better off they will be...

Unfortunately Boehner & McConnel care more about their own political futures than what's good for the country. A clean funding bill in the house would easily pass in an up or down vote,yet the tan man refuses to bring it to the floor.

The Republican party is like an old house that's completely infested with termites. It's becoming more and more apparent to me that their only hope may be to burn it down and start over.

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

I thought that this was interesting...

King: 30 to 40 GOP lawmakers refuse to admit legitimacy of Obama’s presidency

Quote :

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday that there are about 30 to 40 Republicans in Congress who refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency and are seeking to erase everything that’s happened during his administration.

This, coming from Peter King, of all people.

 Peter King has always maintained that the birther movement is crazy.

Did you read the article?  I don't think he is just talking about "birthers."

Scorpion wrote:

So what's the response from the hate mongers on the right?

Artie60438 wrote:

Judas Republican Peter King: Shows his RINO Obama enabling co-conspirator criminal colors

The author,Nathan Bickel,who apparently runs the site you linked to is also a firm believer that Sandy Hook was a "hoax".

Wow. I wasn't aware of that.  I should have checked out the site more closely before I posted it.

Life as we know it on on Planet wingnuttia......
Republican congressman: It's Ted Cruz's fault we're idiots

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The shutdown blame game and continuing civil war has gone from absurd to downright hilarious.

 

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WASHINGTON — Rep. Devin Nunes, a conservative Republican from California’s Central Valley, on Monday accused freshman GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of lying to House Republicans that they could dismantle the Democratic health care reform law known as Obamacare by forcing a government shutdown.

   Nunes, R-Tulare, said the strategy pursued by Cruz, a Texas freshman, and to a lesser extent Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is “based on a false premise” because Republicans can’t get two-thirds votes in the House and the Senate to override President Barack Obama’s veto when he rejects any bill that ends his signature law.

Yes, Ted Cruz made them all stupid. And unable to count! This, by the way, is coming from the guy that called his fellow House Republicans "lemmings with suicide vests." He's also the guy, along with more than a dozen of his supposed revolting Republicans, who failed to prove he's not a lemming when he had the chance to do it.

But he's got a helluva re-election theme for 2014: "Don't blame me ... I'm just stupid!" Or, he could put his name where his mouth is.

Gallup Poll: GOP Favorability Sinks to Historic Low

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A political bus plunge

Wow, the latest Gallup poll is stunning — the approval rating of the Republican Party has now dropped by 10 points since the last poll, to a historic low for either party: Republican Party Favorability Sinks to Record Low.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the Republican-controlled House of Representatives engaged in a tense, government-shuttering budgetary standoff against a Democratic president and Senate, the Republican Party is now viewed favorably by 28% of Americans, down from 38% in September. This is the lowest favorable rating measured for either party since Gallup began asking this question in 1992.

Greg Sargent notes the last time the GOP’s approval rating took such a precipitous dive: GOP’s Favorability Sinks Into Clinton Impeachment Territory.

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You’ll note that the only other time the GOP’s favorability ratings sank almost this low was in the beginning of 1999. I asked Gallup for a more fine grained breakdown of the data.

It turns out the GOP’s favorability rating hit 31 percent on December 19th and 20th of 1998. Those are the same two days the House GOP debated on and voted to impeach Bill Clinton. The very same two days.

And so the GOP’s favorability rating is now in the same territory as it was on those two days — or perhaps even lower.

I've always believed that there are about 23% that would set themselves on fire if the Republican Party told them to. We may finally get an exact number if they lead us over the debt ceiling cliff.

[quote="Artie60438"]Gallup Poll: GOP Favorability Sinks to Historic Low
[quote]
Not so fast says Ted Cruz  
Ted Cruz Poll: GOP Gaining Ground From Obamacare Fight

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Sen. Ted Cruz told fellow conservatives Wednesday that the polling news isn't all bad for Republicans:his own survey found the contentious Obamacare defunding fight bolstered the party's political position, the Washington Examiner reported.

Brought to you by the same idiots that promised a Romney landslide

Louie Gohmert: A Debt Default Is 'An Impeachable Offense By The President'

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Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) isn't sure whether he'll support a debt limit deal, but he is sure of one thing: a debt default would be President Barack Obama's fault.

A reporter for The Young Turks asked Gohmert whether he'd support a bill that would raise the debt ceiling at the Values Voter Summit on Friday.

"The word 'deal' concerns me," he said. "If it's good for America."

When asked whether he would allow the government to default on its debt, Gohmert projected the responsibility for such circumstances onto Obama.

"No," he said, "that would be an impeachable offense by the president."

Gohmert has continuously attempted to diffuse blame for a potential breach of the debt ceiling -- and the government shutdown -- as an Oct. 17 debt limit deadline looms.

During a Friday interview with Glenn Beck, Gohmert reversed the "negotiating with a gun to our head" rhetoric used both by Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to say the Republican party has been put in a tough position during budget negotiations.

"We didn’t want the government shutdown,” Gohmert told Beck. “The President stood there and he said, ‘You are not going to use a gun.’ Are you kidding? And I heard Carney say yesterday, ‘We’re not going to allow the Republican Congress to force us to pay them to do their job.’ He’s got it exactly backwards. They are holding a gun to America’s head and saying, ‘Republicans: Give us all the money in the Treasury plus more than our children can ever pay for. And if you don’t, we’re going to burn down the country."

Way to go Louie! Keep up the good work! The House control is looking better and better for Dems in 2014.

Artie60438 wrote:

Way to go Louie! Keep up the good work! The House control is looking better and better for Dems in 2014.

That's not going to happen.  The GOP has gerrymandered their way to a Republican majority... no matter what.  Just look at 2012.  The Dems actually got well over a million more votes than the Repubs. You see how that turned out.

The math for a Democratic takeover of the House just isn't there. We may be stuck with a Republican controlled House until the next census.
 
The only possible way that I can see it changing is if the GOP splits into 2 parties.

Scorpion wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Way to go Louie! Keep up the good work! The House control is looking better and better for Dems in 2014.

That's not going to happen.  The GOP has gerrymandered their way to a Republican majority... no matter what.  Just look at 2012.  The Dems actually got well over a million more votes than the Repubs. You see how that turned out.

Yeah,Democrats picked up 13 seats

Scorpion wrote:

The math for a Democratic takeover of the House just isn't there. We may be stuck with a Republican controlled House until the next census.

Polls are already showing that certain Repubs are in serious trouble. Difficult yes,but not impossible.

Scorpion wrote:

The only possible way that I can see it changing is if the GOP splits into 2 parties.

I don't see that happening until 2016

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Way to go Louie! Keep up the good work! The House control is looking better and better for Dems in 2014.

That's not going to happen.  The GOP has gerrymandered their way to a Republican majority... no matter what.  Just look at 2012.  The Dems actually got well over a million more votes than the Repubs. You see how that turned out.

Yeah,Democrats picked up 13 seats

Actually, unless I'm mistaken, it was only 8.  If not for all the gerrymandering, they would have won a whole lot more.

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

The math for a Democratic takeover of the House just isn't there. We may be stuck with a Republican controlled House until the next census.

Polls are already showing that certain Repubs are in serious trouble. Difficult yes,but not impossible.

Very improbable.   If the Democrats pick up 8 more seats, that would be an excellent showing.  I don't even know if that is possible, given what the Repubs have done with the redistricting.

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

The only possible way that I can see it changing is if the GOP splits into 2 parties.

I don't see that happening until 2016

To be honest, I'd be surprised if that happens at all.  Obviously, it would be great if they did split into two, but it's probably wishful thinking.

Scorpion wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

That's not going to happen.  The GOP has gerrymandered their way to a Republican majority... no matter what.  Just look at 2012.  The Dems actually got well over a million more votes than the Repubs. You see how that turned out.

Yeah,Democrats picked up 13 seats

Actually, unless I'm mistaken, it was only 8.  If not for all the gerrymandering, they would have won a whole lot more.

You're right. I must have misread the info when I was looking it up.

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

The only possible way that I can see it changing is if the GOP splits into 2 parties.

I don't see that happening until 2016

Quote :

To be honest, I'd be surprised if that happens at all.  Obviously, it would be great if they did split into two, but it's probably wishful thinking.

Maybe,but let me ask you this.....How in the hell are they going to reconcile into a unified group? The tea party loons are pretty much inflexible. They along with hate radio are convinced that they would have won the last to Pres elections if they had only run hard right conservatives. They will go ballistic if Christie or some other moderate gets the nod.

Would you agree that right now there is a full blown civil war going on in the GOP?

Other than St Ronnie coming back from the grave I just don't see any Republican capable of brokering peace. Heck,Boehner is scared shitless of losing the Speaker position and  McConnel is worried about being primaried. When their own leadership is fighting a possible mutiny who steps up to bring them together? Any idea of how they're going to resolve it?

Hi Ho,Hi Ho,It's Off To Work we go  
Cook Report Moves 14 House Races Towards Democrats Following Shutdown

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The Cook Political Report changed its ratings of 15 House seats Friday, moving 14 of them in the direction of Democrats following the government shutdown.

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"Mostly as a result of the damage House Republicans sustained during the 16-day government shutdown, we are making changes to our ratings in 15 House seats, all but one in Democrats' direction," Cook Political Report said in a statement.

House Republican seats Cook deemed more in danger include Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) and Rep. Mark Takano (R-CA).

The Cook statement warned that while Democrats have acheived fundraising success recently, they still have a while before the 2014 elections.

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"Democrats still have a very uphill climb to a majority, and it's doubtful they can sustain this month's momentum for another year," the Cook statement says. "But Republicans' actions have energized Democratic fundraising and recruiting efforts and handed Democrats a potentially effective message."

I heard today that the GOP is going to be defending 55 seats that are in play.

Meanwhile Rush Limbaugh declared victory today by claiming that the GOP is preventing Obama from accomplishing anything.  My thanks to the Drugster for handing us an excellent campaign issue.

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

That's not going to happen.  The GOP has gerrymandered their way to a Republican majority... no matter what.  Just look at 2012.  The Dems actually got well over a million more votes than the Repubs. You see how that turned out.

Yeah,Democrats picked up 13 seats

Actually, unless I'm mistaken, it was only 8.  If not for all the gerrymandering, they would have won a whole lot more.

You're right. I must have misread the info when I was looking it up.

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

The only possible way that I can see it changing is if the GOP splits into 2 parties.

I don't see that happening until 2016

Quote :

To be honest, I'd be surprised if that happens at all.  Obviously, it would be great if they did split into two, but it's probably wishful thinking.

Maybe,but let me ask you this.....How in the hell are they going to reconcile into a unified group? The tea party loons are pretty much inflexible. They along with hate radio are convinced that they would have won the last to Pres elections if they had only run hard right conservatives. They will go ballistic if Christie or some other moderate gets the nod.

Would you agree that right now there is a full blown civil war going on in the GOP?

Other than St Ronnie coming back from the grave I just don't see any Republican capable of brokering peace. Heck,Boehner is scared shitless of losing the Speaker position and  McConnel is worried about being primaried. When their own leadership is fighting a possible mutiny who steps up to bring them together? Any idea of how they're going to resolve it?

IMHO. there's only one way to resolve it. The GOP needs to cut the Tea Party loose.  Could the Tea Party really be viable as a stand alone party?  Hell no.  

Would this hurt the GOP?  Sure, at first.  But let's face it. In the long run, the Tea Party voters won't have any place else to turn.  Most of them will either come back to the GOP on election day or they'll stay home.

I do agree that this is a civil war going on in the GOP.  But it's a war that the mainstream GOP can win.  They just have to bite the bullet and do it.

In some ways, it's similar to what the Democratic Party had to go through after the Civil Rights Act cost them Southern voters. But the Dems had the good sense to tell the racists to go to hell rather than sacrifice the party's identity.    

It's time for the Republicans to do the same.  I really don't see any other option.   If the GOP doesn't change soon, they are toast.  They just can't continue to allow the extremists in their party to set the agenda.  

Christie, if he decides to run, could be a really formidable candidate... especially if he stands up to the extremists, which I think he will.

Scorpion wrote:

It's time for the Republicans to do the same.  I really don't see any other option.   If the GOP doesn't change soon, they are toast.  They just can't continue to allow the extremists in their party to set the agenda.

 I happened to see Matt Kibbe,CEO of the tea party PAC "Freedom Works"  on "Hardball" today and he explicitly stated that "the goal of the Tea Party is to take over the Republican party in 2014". His only exception to any sort of moderate R's would be in "Blue States".  OTOH,Freedom works is nearly broke,so fundraising will be even more important in 2014.

Quote :

Christie, if he decides to run, could be a really formidable candidate... especially if he stands up to the extremists, which I think he will.

Christie is already the number 1 target of hate radio and his dropping today of New Jersey's legal challenge to gay marriage will only fuel more hate in Skeeterville. As much as Crazy Cruz is loved in Cuckoo land,the hatred for Christie is even stronger. His working with Obama during Hurricane Sandy stands for everything they don't want....compromise.

IMO,The next 3 years will be some of the most interesting political theater that we may ever see. I'm just glad it's the GOP who's going to be putting on the show.  

Artie60438 wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

It's time for the Republicans to do the same.  I really don't see any other option.   If the GOP doesn't change soon, they are toast.  They just can't continue to allow the extremists in their party to set the agenda.

 I happened to see Matt Kibbe,CEO of the tea party PAC "Freedom Works"  on "Hardball" today and he explicitly stated that "the goal of the Tea Party is to take over the Republican party in 2014". His only exception to any sort of moderate R's would be in "Blue States".  OTOH,Freedom works is nearly broke,so fundraising will be even more important in 2014.

Yeah. Well they can try to take over the Republican party. But I seriously doubt that they will be successful.

Quote :

Christie, if he decides to run, could be a really formidable candidate... especially if he stands up to the extremists, which I think he will.

Artie60438 wrote:

Christie is already the number 1 target of hate radio and his dropping today of New Jersey's legal challenge to gay marriage will only fuel more hate in Skeeterville. As much as Crazy Cruz is loved in Cuckoo land,the hatred for Christie is even stronger. His working with Obama during Hurricane Sandy stands for everything they don't want....compromise.

IMO,The next 3 years will be some of the most interesting political theater that we may ever see. I'm just glad it's the GOP who's going to be putting on the show.  

Yeah. Well lIMHO, the GOP will probably put an end to this nonsense long before 2016.  That will give Christie (or another "moderate") the opening to move to the center.  If they don't move to the center, then they have no chance in a Presidential race. The swing voters are the ones who ultimately determine the outcome and they sure as hell are not going to support some right wing fringe candidate.

The Tea Party and the Hammock Theory of Poverty

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The increased focus on inequality has shifted the conversation away from deficit/austerity mania and towards a discussion of what government should be doing to boost the economy and protect people from economic harm. And it’s also prompted good new polling that goes deep into public views of the economy, the safety net, inequality, and what government should do about it.

On these topics, this week brought two new polls from Pew Research and CBS News.

I’ve asked both firms for a detailed breakdown of their data, and here’s a striking finding: The ideas and assumptions underlying the GOP economic and poverty agenda are far and away more reflective of the preoccupations of Tea Party Republicans. Meanwhile, non-Tea Party Republicans are much more in line with the rest of the public on these matters.

In short, the Tea Party economic worldview, if such a thing exists, is isolated from the rest of the public, and even to some degree from non-Tea Party Republicans – yet it has an outsized role in shaping the GOP’s overall agenda.

. . .

A number of conservative reform types, such as Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, and Michael Strain, have written at length about the need to break from tea party orthodoxy on economic matters, and to begin to envision an affirmative government role when it comes to strengthening (and reforming) the safety net, and even spending government money to combat the near term jobs emergency. I don’t know if non-tea party Republicans can be reached and split off from the tea party on these matters or not, but it does seem at least plausible, if the above numbers are an accurate picture of things.

Meanwhile, some Republican lawmakers do seem sincere about charting a new course on poverty. But the party agenda remains in thrall to a set of ideas that remain largely the province of a small tea party minority, and are not nearly as widely held among Republicans overall.

Suck it Tea Party!
G.O.P. Senate Leaders Avert Debt Ceiling Crisis

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WASHINGTON — It was a moment of real drama in a chamber known for its somnambulism. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, counted votes on his hand, at one point holding up three fingers as he searched for the remaining votes. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, his No. 2, paced the Senate floor.

What happened next would determine whether their party would again be blamed for triggering a crisis. But when it was clear they had no choice, the two Republicans, who face primary challenges in the November midterm elections, stepped forward in tandem on Wednesday to break their party’s filibuster.

In a nearby cloakroom, an animated Senator John McCain of Arizona pleaded with fellow Republicans to support their leaders, while others directed ire at Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who prompted the showdown, and at one point stood alone as his colleagues gathered in a tight circle to weigh their options. Eventually, others followed the leaders — 12 Republicans in all — and the potential catastrophe was no more.

It also represented a public rebuke of the Tea Party wing by Republican Party elders in what has been a sometimes fierce intramural struggle.

Congress gave final approval on Wednesday to raising the nation’s borrowing authority, the first “clean” increase since 2009. It followed Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio delivering a House vote on Tuesday on the backs of Democratic votes, as Republican leaders stood up to absorb the blows from the Tea Party elements in their party.

For Mr. Boehner, the challenge was putting a debt ceiling increase up for a vote, without preconditions. For Senate Republican leaders, it was to actually cast the votes. In both chambers, their actions provided crucial political cover to their colleagues, who then were free to vote against the measure while also escaping blame in the midterm elections for the harm to the economy that a debt default would have wrought.

“McConnell and Cornyn voted in a responsible way under the circumstances, and hopefully people will understand that McConnell, especially, in an incredibly tough race, the toughest Republican race in the country, had the courage to vote the way the vast majority understood needed to occur,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who voted with his leadership. “I’ve got to tell you I think it shows tremendous courage on his part.”

The Senate voted 67 to 31 to break the filibuster, with 12 Republicans joining all 55 Democrats on the most critical vote of the day. The bill to lift the debt ceiling until March 2015 then passed 55 to 43, in an entirely party-line vote.

Krugman nails it...
The Fix Isn’t In

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Eric Cantor and the Death of a Movement

JUNE 12, 2014

How big a deal is the surprise primary defeat of Representative Eric Cantor, the House majority leader? Very. Movement conservatism, which dominated American politics from the election of Ronald Reagan to the election of Barack Obama — and which many pundits thought could make a comeback this year — is unraveling before our eyes.

I don’t mean that conservatism in general is dying. But what I and others mean by “movement conservatism,” a term I think I learned from the historian Rick Perlstein, is something more specific: an interlocking set of institutions and alliances that won elections by stoking cultural and racial anxiety but used these victories mainly to push an elitist economic agenda, meanwhile providing a support network for political and ideological loyalists.

By rejecting Mr. Cantor, the Republican base showed that it has gotten wise to the electoral bait and switch, and, by his fall, Mr. Cantor showed that the support network can no longer guarantee job security. For around three decades, the conservative fix was in; but no more.

To see what I mean by bait and switch, think about what happened in 2004. George W. Bush won re-election by posing as a champion of national security and traditional values — as I like to say, he ran as America’s defender against gay married terrorists — then turned immediately to his real priority: privatizing Social Security. It was the perfect illustration of the strategy famously described in Thomas Frank’s book “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” in which Republicans would mobilize voters with social issues, but invariably turn postelection to serving the interests of corporations and the 1 percent.

In return for this service, businesses and the wealthy provided both lavish financial support for right-minded (in both senses) politicians and a safety net — “wing-nut welfare” — for loyalists. In particular, there were always comfortable berths waiting for those who left office, voluntarily or otherwise. There were lobbying jobs; there were commentator spots at Fox News and elsewhere (two former Bush speechwriters are now Washington Post columnists); there were “research” positions (after losing his Senate seat, Rick Santorum became director of the “America’s Enemies” program at a think tank supported by the Koch brothers, among others).

The combination of a successful electoral strategy and the safety net made being a conservative loyalist a seemingly low-risk professional path. The cause was radical, but the people it recruited tended increasingly to be apparatchiks, motivated more by careerism than by conviction.

That’s certainly the impression Mr. Cantor conveyed. I’ve never heard him described as inspiring. His political rhetoric was nasty but low-energy, and often amazingly tone-deaf. You may recall, for example, that in 2012 he chose to celebrate Labor Day with a Twitter post honoring business owners. But he was evidently very good at playing the inside game.

It turns out, however, that this is no longer enough. We don’t know exactly why he lost his primary, but it seems clear that Republican base voters didn’t trust him to serve their priorities as opposed to those of corporate interests (and they were probably right). And the specific issue that loomed largest, immigration, also happens to be one on which the divergence between the base and the party elite is wide. It’s not just that the elite believes that it must find a way to reach Hispanics, whom the base loathes. There’s also an inherent conflict between the base’s nativism and the corporate desire for abundant, cheap labor.

And while Mr. Cantor won’t go hungry — he’ll surely find a comfortable niche on K Street — the humiliation of his fall is a warning that becoming a conservative apparatchik isn’t the safe career choice it once seemed.

So whither movement conservatism? Before the Virginia upset, there was a widespread media narrative to the effect that the Republican establishment was regaining control from the Tea Party, which was really a claim that good old-fashioned movement conservatism was on its way back. In reality, however, establishment figures who won primaries did so only by reinventing themselves as extremists. And Mr. Cantor’s defeat shows that lip service to extremism isn’t enough; the base needs to believe that you really mean it.

In the long run — which probably begins in 2016 — this will be bad news for the G.O.P., because the party is moving right on social issues at a time when the country at large is moving left. (Think about how quickly the ground has shifted on gay marriage.) Meanwhile, however, what we’re looking at is a party that will be even more extreme, even less interested in participating in normal governance, than it has been since 2008. An ugly political scene is about to get even uglier.

To sum it up....
The "useful idiots" can no longer be counted on unless you out-crazy the other guy.

Chris McDaniel Tells Mark Levin ‘We’re Not Going to Concede’

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Mississippi tea party challenger Chris McDaniel lost last night’s primary to Thad Cochran, but he did not concede in his speech to supporters and he has no plans to. He told Mark Levin tonight that not only won’t he concede, but he’s going to push for an investigation of the vote.

Levin pointed out that in the primary and in last night’s runoff, McDaniel got more Republican votes than Cochran did in Republican races, and wondered when the election laws will be fixed so they can’t be “manipulated” like that. McDaniel said the Cochran campaign snatched thousands of liberal Democrats through seedy means, including, as McDaniel alleged, “paying people to vote.”

And he went on to say he’ll be contesting the outcome of the vote until everything is cleared up, explaining that a lot of these Democrats committed an illegal act by voting for Cochran when 1) they voted in the Democratic primary weeks ago, and 2) they voted for a candidate they have no intention of supporting.

And if that doesn't work please consider running as a write-in  

Trump, The Confederate Flag, And How Fox News Created The GOP's Summer Of Discontent

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Indeed, the front page of the New York Times last Friday featured two articles detailing a pair of mini crises Republican leaders were forced to grapple with: Trump's troubling rise in the polls, and the messy debate that broke out in the House of Representatives when Republicans at the last minute tried to introduce an amendment to protect the Confederate flag in national cemeteries, only to then withdraw the controversial measure. A "fiasco," is how the Washington Post's Dana Milbank described the GOP's confederate flag two-step; the Times tagged it "an embarrassment."

Those two issues bedeviling the GOP are inexorably linked. And a key force driving both is Fox News.

Contorting itself into ugly dead ends over the issues of race and immigrant bashing, Republicans have themselves to blame for allowing this kind of ugliness to fester unobstructed for years. But Republicans can also blame Fox News for the party's unfolding summer of discontent.

Why Fox? Because the cable channel has given Trump a platform for years to spout his loopy, hateful rhetoric, including his "birther" charade from 2011, which Fox practically co-sponsored. And note that last month, Trump landed more Fox airtime than any other GOP campaign hopeful. So yes, when Fox's programming regularly pushes out xenophobia to Republican viewers, you can't be surprised when Republican viewers embrace a xenophobic candidate.

As for the Confederate flag, Fox News shoulders some blame because of the channel's hallmark, toxic race-baiting during the Obama years. As conservatives grapple with the historic legacy of slavery and day-to-day racial injustices it's impossible not to notice that previous pattern of ugly rhetoric lurking beneath the surface of the flag debate, especially while Fox hosts and analysts play down the significance of removing the Civil War artifact. (One Fox reporter asked if the American flag would soon be targeted.)

The conservative media's soft spot for the Confederate flag doesn't exist in a vacuum. It seems to spring from a dark, ugly well of race baiting. Recall that it was one of Fox's most famous hosts who called Obama a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture." Fox's Eric Bolling once referred to the President of Gabon's visit to the White House as Obama hosting a "hoodlum" in the "hizzouse" and suggested that President Obama was "chugging 40's" during a state visit to Ireland. Geraldo Rivera placed blame on unarmed Trayvon Martin for his own death because he was wearing a hoodie. And Megyn Kelly once hosted NRO's Andrew McCarthy to argue that race-based voter suppression "has long ago passed to the dustbin of history," calling anyone who thinks otherwise demagogues and "race hucksters."

Then there was the racially-tinged birther nonsense, which Fox was central in helping to market. (The ugliness was adopted by some within the Tea Party movement, too.) And that brings us back to Trump, who just last week told a CNN interviewer he wasn't sure where Obama was born.

Trump is widely perceived to be a racist buffoon, and corporate America (NASCAR, Macy's, NBC, etc.) is now sprinting away from him for fear of being associated with his brand of hate. Yet among Republican voters, Trump's favorable rating has actually been on the rise in recent weeks -- as he makes more and more outlandish claims, more and more conservatives embrace him.

Appearing on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show last week, Tom Jensen from Public Policy Polling explained what North Carolina Republican voters were saying via a new PPP survey that found Trump as their top pick. From Nexis: "Republicans in North Carolina love the Confederate flag. It is getting taken away. Republicans in North Carolina hate gay marriage. It is here to stay. Republicans in North Carolina hate Obamacare, it's here to stay."

Jensen may as well have been describing Fox News' most loyal viewers.

Trump is a loud, offensive and ill informed birther who thinks climate change is a hoax. As I noted in May, Trump represents not only the Fox News id, but he mirrors the extreme dark side of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, a man who has reportedly advocated sending Navy SEALs to the U.S.-Mexico border in order to kill undocumented immigrants crossing over into America.

This tweet from Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman says it all about the spectacle now unfolding: "Trump is what Ailes did to the GOP."

And what Ailes and Fox are doing to the GOP this summer may not be reversible.

It truly is a wonderful  summer