The Continued Fracturing of the GOP

And now, guess who is back. That's right, the batshit crazy baggers are back just in time for the rebranding of the GOP. Perfect timing, turning off moderate, mainstream voters is the only way to go.

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The Tea Party Caucus: It’s Baaack!

By DAVID FIRESTONE

For the better part of a year, the country has survived, somehow, without a House Tea Party Caucus. A group that once boiled with anti-government furor went dormant last summer as the Tea Party’s popularity plummeted and its leader, Michele Bachmann, struggled to get re-elected. Ten caucus members lost their jobs in November. The sniping about the House Republican leadership — not to mention President Obama — quieted down, and so did the tweets championing Barry Goldwater’s still-radioactive support of extremism.

(The caucus also brought us gems like this one, from the caucus’s Twitter stream last July: “This week’s featured Member is @RepToddAkin. Click here to learn more about him: http://tiny.cc/00o6gw #tcot #TeaParty.” Hint: don’t bother to click.)

But on Thursday the caucus is holding a reception to “relaunch” itself, according to Roll Call—a cause for celebration if you’re a connoisseur of Republican disorder. It’s been ages since caucus-members sponsored a “birther” bill, reminding the public of the racism and nativism that swirls around the extreme right. It’s been ages since Ms. Bachmann and others fought against raising the debt ceiling, and practically cheered for the government default that would result. (They promised that it would not be a catastrophe because the White House could easily prioritize which debts to pay off.) And it’s been years since the caucus issued a budget to the right of Paul Ryan’s — and to the right of the very conservative Republican Study Committee — advocating unimaginable cuts that would make the current sequester seem like a liberal fantasy.

House Republican leaders can’t be happy about this development. They’ve been desperately trying to rebrand their party, making it more palatable to suburban voters who were turned off by the caucus’s “you lie!” stridency. The immigration bill now inching through Congress is one fruit of that effort, but Tea Party Caucus members have promised to rip it apart or severely water it down once it reaches the House.

The right-wing undermining of House leaders was also evident on Wednesday, when Majority Leader Eric Cantor pulled a bill that would have moved money from the prevention fund in the health care reform law to high-risk insurance pools. Mr. Cantor wanted to show that that the law was deeply flawed but that his party still cared about poor people with pre-existing conditions. House conservatives, however, want only to repeal the health-care law, and refused to vote for any bill that merely made adjustments to it.

The Tea Party, or what remains of it, has no interest in rebranding, and even the presence of a smaller, less influential caucus will exert an ideological tug on less radical Republicans. On Wednesday, in fact, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill that would, once again, prioritize the nation’s debt in the event of a default when the debt ceiling expires this summer. Mainstream voters who might have thought the Republican Party had left all that behind should think again.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/the-tea-party-caucus-its-baaack/?ref=opinion&gwh=6772C4D25B43061E3B689CADCD0B0ACE

[quote="Artie60438"]Secret Tape: Top GOP Consultant Luntz Calls Limbaugh "Problematic"

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At a talk to college students, Republican pollster Frank Luntz would only chastise Rush Limbaugh and right-wing radio off the record.

So what did this asshat do to rectify the situation? Do what a right-winger will always do....screw people,in this case students,who had absolutely nothing to do with it....
After getting caught insulting Rush Limbaugh, Frank Luntz pulls student scholarship

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Following Mother Jones' publication of remarks GOP message man Frank Luntz made to University of Pennsylvania students about conservative talk radio, Luntz has decided to withdraw funding for a university scholarship named after his father that sends students to Washington, DC, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, an independent student newspaper at the school.

While Luntz is scheduled to speak on a panel at the University during graduation weekend, he said that he would never return to speak after this incident, and would discourage others from speaking here.

Luntz's response to one student recording his speech and getting him in trouble with Rush Limbaugh is not only to vow to have nothing to do with the university again, but to cut off a fund intended for other students as punishment. It's very Republican—almost Bushian, in fact. It's no invading the wrong country, mind you, but a solid AA-league effort.

Anyway, if you ever had doubts as to whether Republican message-crafter Frank Luntz was just as big an ass as his preferred clients, there's your answer. No word yet on whether Limbaugh will be satisfied with the revoking of a student scholarship program as satisfactory payback for being ever so freaking mildly disrespected, but I'm sure Frank Luntz is sweating bullets as he waits to hear either way.

If Limbaugh was a decent human being he would call out Luntz for this shameful act. But we all know he won't.

Tea party has had it with GOP

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Feeling betrayed by the Republican Party and its leaders, tea party groups in Ohio appear to be uniting and moving toward either a split from the GOP or action to punish Republican candidates who fail ideological purity tests.

A series of events, culminating with the April 26 election of Matt Borges as chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, spurred a flurry of meetings and conference calls among tea party leaders last week to plot a course of action heading into the 2014 statewide election.

Options being discussed, according to Seth Morgan, policy director for Americans for Prosperity, range from breaking off into “a third party, to an insurrection (within the Republican Party) and everything in between.”

Tom Zawistowski, executive director of the Portage County Tea Party who lost his bid for the Ohio GOP chairmanship by a 48-7 vote of the party’s state central committee, met on Saturday with Don Shrader, chairman of the Constitution Party of Ohio, to explore uniting in a party committed more to principles than winning elections.

After the chairmanship vote, Zawistowski said he made it clear that if the state GOP did not focus on enacting conservative policies, “we would either find a political party to join or we would start one of our own,” saying his meeting with Shrader “is the first step in that process.”

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Ronald Rapoport, a political scientist at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., who last week released a new study titled “Republican Factionalism and Tea Party Activism,” said tea party “threats for a primary should be taken seriously.”

His research showed that tea party supporters comprise “a clear majority” of voters “who show up for Republican primary elections.” Rapoport said tea partyers are ideologically “super-mobilized” and are interested in taking over the Republican Party “and purifying it to what they think the party should be” rather than compromising on principle.

“It’s clear that establishment Republicans who have a different set of priorities care more about elections than tea party members who care more about principle and purity and they’re less willing to compromise in order to get elected.”

Rapoport said that the peril for a Republican Party that already “has gotten smaller” is that the more influence the tea party gains over it, the less appeal the GOP will have to voters overall because surveys show that a majority of voters do not support the tea party.

Ha Ha! The one state that the GOP needs most is going to have a civil war with the lunatic fringe. Perfect! They may as well forget about having any chance to retake the Presidency until at least 2024 when a lot of them will be dead.

Ex-Rep. Joe Walsh being considered for Illinois GOP Chair?

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America's most famous No Longer A Deadbeat Dad is back in the news, of sorts. Ex-congressman Joe Walsh is one of the nine or so names being considered for Illinois' new Republican Party Chairman, a spot that just opened up after previous Chair Pat Brady was ousted for having insufficient disrespect for gay people and other apparent … difficulties. Walsh joins a prestigious list of contenders, including "President of Chicago Young Republicans guy," "failed State Attorney candidate" and "brother in law of a state rep guy." Does he have the chops to take on such fearsome competition? We'll see, but we're all cheering for ya here, Walsh. Give it your no-longer-a-deadbeat best.

This, though, needs to win some sort of actual, trophy-having award:

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The architect behind Brady's ousting and a GOP conservative, state Sen. Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove), said there is a plan and it's underway. That is, airing out the committee's nominees and suggestions and coming up with a person who can find some middle ground. […]

"I believe that a very sound process is underway," Oberweis said. And, looking forward: "We want to find a candidate who does appeal to both the conservatives and the liberals within the party and who will be a uniter who will bring those people together rather than a divider who would cause conflict."

Yes. Someone to bring together the "conservatives" and the "liberals" in the Republican Party. No—just savor it. That one is state Sen. Jim Oberweis' gift to all of us.

This might be the final nail in the Ill GOP coffin. Oberweis & Walsh,two kooks from the far,far,right.

In this corner
Ted Cruz: ‘I don’t trust the Republicans’

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On Wednesday afternoon, while speaking on the Senate floor, Tea Party darling and freshman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) declared that he does not trust the Republican leadership to properly handle budget negotiations on the next Congressional showdown regarding the budget ceiling, nor does he trust the Democrats. The contentious arch-conservative senator seemed to go out of his way in his remarks Wednesday to question the judgment of senior Arizona Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

“Madame President,” Cruz said to Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who was presiding over the Senate session, “the senior senator from Arizona urged this body to trust the Republicans. Let me be clear, I don’t trust the Republicans.”

“And I don’t trust the Democrats,” he continued after a beat. “And I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don’t trust the Republicans and the Democrats because it is leadership in both parties that has gotten us into this mess.”

--snip--

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Cruz has raised hackles on both sides of the aisle with his grandstanding, long-winded rhetorical style and habit of challenging the Republican leadership. McCain has called Cruz a “wacko-bird” and Cruz has taken a vocal stand against a Senate Immigration Reform package championed by another rising Republican star, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).

I suggest they have a tag team match to settle their differences. Ted Cruz paired up with Lunatic Louie Gohmert vs Gramps McCain & the Southern Belle,Lindsay Graham.

Man, today was even more bizarre. McCain really stepped up and basically called this bunch crazy...

Tea Party Senators jump the shark

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In a key moment on the Senate floor this morning, John McCain came very close to stating outright that Tea Party Republican Senators are in the grip of what some of us have been describing as a kind of ”post policy nihilism” that has taken over the GOP. This should be a real clarifying moment: Tea Party Senators have pushed their disregard for basic governing norms so far that even fellow Republicans are calling them out for it.

Far right Senators Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul have been insisting that Democrats and Republicans should not enter into conference negotiations over the budget unless Democrats agree in advance not to push for a rise in the debt ceiling as part of the talks. McCain took to the Senate floor today and laid into Senator Lee very hard over this:

If you'd like to see the entire "debate," you can see it in the video below. It starts at about 1hr 44m or so... runs about an hour.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SenateSession5100

MORE please! This country needs a sane and rational GOP.

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This poses a very simple test for Republicans who like to think of themselves as moderate. How many of them will do what McCain and Collins have done and call out this lunacy among their far right colleagues? This is yet another sign that the post policy nihilism that has taken over large swaths of the GOP is the real reason compromise in Washington has become impossible.

History will be unforgiving.

Scorpion wrote:

Man, today was even more bizarre. McCain really stepped up and basically called this bunch crazy...

Tea Party Senators jump the shark

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In a key moment on the Senate floor this morning, John McCain came very close to stating outright that Tea Party Republican Senators are in the grip of what some of us have been describing as a kind of ”post policy nihilism” that has taken over the GOP. This should be a real clarifying moment: Tea Party Senators have pushed their disregard for basic governing norms so far that even fellow Republicans are calling them out for it.

Far right Senators Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul have been insisting that Democrats and Republicans should not enter into conference negotiations over the budget unless Democrats agree in advance not to push for a rise in the debt ceiling as part of the talks. McCain took to the Senate floor today and laid into Senator Lee very hard over this:

I saw some clips of McCain's speech. I usually take a few minutes to listen to wingnut Mark Levin" on WLS to get a chuckle before going to bed. Right on schedule he was railing about McCain while praising Ted Cruz as a great statesman who has made a "great difference in a few months and should be President". Here's his rant if you're interested and would like to hear the worst radio voice ever at the same time.


I truly believe that come 2016 or maybe earlier,should the Repubs lose more seats next year,we may see some of these loons like Cruz and Rand Paul break off and try to start their own party.

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WALLACE: What do you think of your party, the Republicans today?

DOLE: I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says “closed for repairs” until New Year’s Day next year — and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas.

WALLACE: You describe the GOP of your generation as Eisenhower Republicans, moderate Republicans. Could people like you, even Ronald Reagan — could you make it in today’s Republican Party.

DOLE: I doubt it. Reagan couldn’t have made it. Certainly Nixon couldn’t have made it, cause he had ideas. We might have made it, but I doubt it.

Enjoy being eaten by Frankenstein's monster, you conspiracy-laden, anti-science morons.

The GOP and abortion legislation

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What happened to the Republican Party that I joined? The party where conservative presidential candidate Barry Goldwater felt women should have the right to control their own destiny? The party where President Ronald Reagan said a poor person showing up in the emergency room deserved needed treatment regardless of ability to pay? What happened to the Republican Party that felt government should not overregulate people until (as we say in Oklahoma) “you have walked a mile in their moccasins”?

. . .

What happened to the Republican Party that felt that the government has no business being in an exam room, standing between me and my patient? Where did the party go that felt some decisions in a woman's life should be made not by legislators and government, but rather by the women, her conscience, her doctor and her God?

Yes, where did that party go?

Michele Bachmann is gone, but her paranoid politics has become the norm for GOP

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Bachmann has left Congress, but her style of politics — steeped in paranoia and resentment — has become the norm for the Republican Party. Prominent figures in the party — ranging from McConnell to Ted Cruz and Rand Paul — are happy to stoke conspiracies if it means gaining a political advantage over Obama and the Democratic Party. The difference between Bachmann and the rest of the Republican Party wasn’t one of kind, it was just one of degree.

Mark at Denialism blog pointed out the danger of tapping into this paranoid underbelly of the GOP years ago. Clearly there's been no benefit to the country in doing so.

Paul Ryan admits GOP can’t govern without a hostage crisis

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Rep. Paul Ryan, the House GOP’s budgetary chieftain, gave a brief but remarkable interview to the Washington Examiner’s David Drucker in which he essentially conceded that Republicans will only negotiate with Democrats over the budget if they can hold the U.S. economy hostage to increase their leverage.

Not terribly surprising. Fear, doom, and gloom are all they have to offer, rather than facts, logic, or reason. They cannot run on the issues. This is why 9/11 Twoofers like Alex Jones are now welcomed into the GOP; they're so cut off from reality.

Wingnut fight!

Republican Congressman Says McCain Was Partly Responsible For The Benghazi Terror Attacks

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Right-wing conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney asked Gohmert on Gaffney’s radio show this week what he thought of McCain’s recent trip to Syria — which Gaffney described as McCain “hobnobbing with Jihadists” — and wondered whether “we’re going to get a proper investigation of the Benghazi-Gate scandal,” a “scandal” Gaffney said he believes “Sen. McCain’s bad advice got us into.” Gohmert agreed that McCain is to blame for Benghazi because McCain supported and advocated for the U.S. led war in Libya that ultimately helped Libyan rebels oust Muammar Qaddafi:

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GOHMERT: Yeah and then we know if it had not been for Sen. McCain and President Obama being for what we knew at the time included al-Qaeda in the rebel forces then we would still have a U.S. ambassador and three others alive today because Benghazi would not have happened. But by giving power to the rebel forces that included al Qaeda that brought that whole mess about and helped create problems in Tunisia and Algeria. So I’m not sure what to think about his going to Syria. If history is any lesson the people he met with he wants us to help should be very careful about what Sen. McCain’s support could mean for them.

Meaty.

They needed extensive polling and focus groups to tell them how out of touch they are?
Report: How GOP lost young voters

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A new postmortem on the November elections from the nation’s leading voice for college Republicans offers a searing indictment of the GOP “brand” and the major challenges the party faces in wooing young voters, according to a copy given exclusively to POLITICO on Sunday.

The College Republican National Committee on Monday made public a detailed report — the result of extensive polling and focus groups — dissecting what went wrong for Republicans with young voters in the 2012 elections and how the party can improve its showing with that key demographic in the future.

It’s not a pretty picture. In fact, it’s a “dismal present situation,” the report says.

(PHOTOS: 2016: Who’s next?)

The 95-page study, which looked at the party’s views on social and economic issues, as well as its messaging and outreach, echoes a March report on the election debacle issued by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, which presented a devastating assessment of the party’s current state of affairs.

But in some ways the new report from inside the GOP tent is even more scathing and ominous — since it comes from the party’s next generation.

Titled the “Grand Old Party for a Brand New Generation,” the report is sharply critical of the GOP on several fronts. The study slams some Republicans’ almost singular focus on downsizing Big Government and cutting taxes; candidates’ use of offensive, polarizing rhetoric; and the party’s belly-flop efforts at messaging and outreach, even as the report presents a way forward and, at times, strikes an optimistic tone.

(PHOTOS: 15 memorable campaign slogans)

In the report, the young Republican activists acknowledge their party has suffered significant damage in recent years. A sampling of the critique on:

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Gay marriage: “On the ‘open-minded’ issue … [w]e will face serious difficulty so long as the issue of gay marriage remains on the table.”

Hispanics: “Latino voters … tend to think the GOP couldn’t care less about them.”

Perception of the party’s economic stance: “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it, but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.”

Big reason for the image problem: The “outrageous statements made by errant Republican voices.”

Words that up-for-grabs voters associate with the GOP: “The responses were brutal: closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.”

“[The] Republican Party has won the youth vote before and can absolutely win it again,” the report says, pointing to presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush who were competitive with that demographic. “But this will not occur without significant work to repair the damage done to the Republican brand among this age group over the last decade.”

(Also on POLITICO: 12 takeaways from Obama's reelection)

The report is based largely on two national surveys of 800 registered voters each, ages 18-29, and six focus groups of young people, including Hispanics, Asian-Americans, single women, economically struggling men and aspiring entrepreneurs in Ohio, Florida and California who had voted for President Barack Obama — he cleaned up with 60 percent of the youth vote — but were considered “winnable” for the GOP.

Hmmm...two choices. Start acting like responsible human beings living in the 21st century or continue to pander to their nutty base. In other words....They're fucked

The Original tea Party Activist

Go Allen Go!!!
Ex-Rep. Allen West mulls Senate run for Marco Rubio’s seat

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Former Rep. Allen B. West said on Wednesday he would consider a run against Sen. Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican primary in Florida.
He said on WMAL radio that he would run for the Senate seat “if I see people that are not taking our country down the right path, if I see people that are not standing up for the right type of principles and putting their own party politics before what is best for the United States of America.”
One of his concerns: immigration legislation pushed by Mr. Rubio as a “whole comprehensive thing … up to 1,075 pages, [and] once again, the American people don’t trust that,” he said, as The Hill reported.
When asked if he would rule out a run against Mr. Rubio, Mr. West said: “Chirping … chirping … chirping. And we’ll see what happens down the pike. God will set my feet on the right path,” The Hill reported.
Mr. West lost his re-election bid for the House in 2012. And he said a race for Mr. Rubio’s seat could prove equally daunting.
“That’s a pretty heavy lift because you’re talking about running against a sitting senator, and then, of course, that creates that schism that the other side would love to see happen,” he said in The Hill.

Speaking of Marco Rubio....
Promoting Marco Rubio and pushing for immigration reform has only earned the GOP a one percent increase with Hispanics. Nice try Gringo!
Courtesy of Mediaite:

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A new poll showing infinitesimal gains among Hispanic voters bristled the GOP on Tuesday, as the supposed rewards of the party’s moderation on immigration seem, for now, not to be materializing.

The poll, courtesy the left-leaning Latino Decisions, pitted various potential GOP 2016 candidates against Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, and found both Democrats trouncing any and all Republican opponents. Clinton whupped Rubio 66-28, and Biden beat him 60-28, though Rubio did outperform the rest of the GOP field by a 2:1 margin.

The major takeaway, though, is the lack of movement of GOP candidates from Mitt Romney’s woeful 2012 showing among Hispanic voters, which was the impetus for the GOP establishment’s sudden sense of urgency for immigration reform, which was to salvage the party’s image with the country’s fastest-growing demographic. But Rubio fared only one percentage point better than the man who never wanted to be president. One point in a poll is a statistical blip, hardly the payoff the Republicans expected from their moderating push over immigration, and a poor return on Rubio’s immolation of his conservative credentials.

One point? Rubio painted a giant target on his back and invited Right Wing hatred over immigration reform for only one point?

Man that's funny!

My favorite part of this article however is that even if the Republicans wanted to roll the dice and put up Rubio as their 2016 candidate he will still get steamrolled, not only by the juggernaut known as Hillary, but by Joe Biden as well. You know Joe, the one the Right Wing is always mocking as ineffective.

Well you know what the GOP needs don't you? They need to add a woman.

I understand the Michele Bachmann will be available.

I can see the bumper sticker now:

Rubio/Bachmann 2016.
Now will you wetbacks and bitches vote GOP?

Oh, please, please, please do this!

Start poppin the popcorn and enjoy the circus that's going to arrive any moment.  

No, Republicans, ‘Missing’ White Voters Won’t Save You

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As GOP House members continue their Kamikaze mission to scuttle the immigration reform bill, many political observers are wondering why. After all, isn’t it obvious that Republicans need more minority, particularly Hispanic support, and that therefore their self-interest should lead them to support a reasonable bill? [url=As GOP House members continue their Kamikaze mission to scuttle the immigration reform bill, many political observers are wondering why. After all, isn’t it obvious that Republicans need more minority, particularly Hispanic support, and that therefore their self-interest should lead them to support a reasonable bill?]Karl Rove thinks so.[/url]

But lots and lots of Republicans dissent from that analysis, preferring to put their faith in a group they’re much more comfortable with: white voters. The most influential empirical analysis supporting this view was recently published by Sean Trende in a four part series on RealClearPolitics. Trende’s analysis is built around the idea of “missing white voters.”

What he means by this is that, given the estimated number of white voters in 2008 (derived from exit polls) and the natural increase in white eligible voters between 2008 and 2012 there should have been far more white voters than there actually were (again, estimated from the exit polls). He labels the difference between his projected and actual numbers of white voters as “missing” white voters. He goes on to say that “[i]f these white voters had decided to vote, the racial breakdown of the electorate would have been 73.6 percent white, 12.5 percent black, 9.5 percent Hispanic and 2.4 percent Asian — almost identical to the 2008 numbers.” Get it? The only real demographic change of importance between 2008 and 2012 was all those white voters who didn’t show up.

What’s wrong with this analysis? Plenty. Start with Trende’s projected natural increase in white voters—around 1.5 million voters, based on an assumed 55 percent turnout rate of additional white eligible voters. This implies that Trende was using an estimate of around 2.7 million additional eligible whites between 2008 and 2012. That’s wrong: Census data show an increase of only 1.5 million white eligibles. At Trende’s assumed 55 percent turnout rate, that translates into only 825,000 additional white voters from “natural increase.”

That’s one problem. But the most serious problem comes from how he handles his “missing” white voters relative to minority “missing” voters. That’s because, by the very same logic he uses to designate large numbers of white voters as missing, there are also large numbers of minority voters who are missing. This is both because minority voters experienced natural increase (much more so than whites actually) and because turnout was low in 2012 compared to 2008. This trend affected all voters, minorities as well as whites.

In 2012, turnout declined by 3.4 percentage points according to Michael McDonald’s US Elections Project. Plugging in his figures on votes cast and using Census data on eligible voters plus exit poll data on shares of votes by race, we calculate that turnout went down by about equal amounts among white and minority voters (3.4 and 3.2 percentage points, respectively).

Not surprisingly then, Trende’s own data show a substantial number of missing minority voters — 2.3 million compared to 6.1 million whites. There are more missing white voters despite the roughly equal declines in turnout simply because they are a larger group and more voters are knocked out of the voting pool for any given decline in turnout.

So what starts out looking like a mysterious epidemic of “missing” white voters becomes mostly a reflection of the simple fact that 2012 was a low turnout election. This unremarkable outcome is then hyped by Trende as the big demographic development of 2012 by doing something that is really quite misleading. He adds back in all the missing white voters to the 2012 electorate while leaving out all the missing minority voters. That is where he gets his claim that “[i]f these white voters had decided to vote, the racial breakdown of the electorate would have been 73.6 percent white, 12.5 percent black, 9.5 percent Hispanic and 2.4 percent Asian — almost identical to the 2008 numbers.”

This really can’t be done. If you’re going to add one type of missing voter back in you should add them all back in; you can’t—or shouldn’t—assume a higher turnout election that would somehow only affect whites. And what happens if you play with the net up and add all the “missing” voters back in? You get 72.4 percent white, 12.8 percent black, 9.6 percent Hispanic, 2.4 percent Asian and 2.8 percent other race—in other words, 72 percent white and 28 percent minority, identical to the actual 2012 exit poll results.

So: GOP phone home! Your missing white voters have been found, and it turns out they weren’t really missing. They were simply sitting out a relatively low turnout election along with a large number of their minority counterparts. They may be back next time if it’s a higher turnout election — but then again so will a lot of minority voters. Bottom line: your demographic dilemma remains the same. The mix of voters is changing fast to your disadvantage and there is no cavalry of white voters waiting in the wings to rescue you.

The best way I can sum up this article is: They're not making "Moby Grapes" like they used to.

Ted Cruz taunts fellow Republicans in Obamacare fight

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Ted Cruz is taking his hardball tactics to a whole new level.

The Texas freshman senator and his senior aides are unleashing a barrage of attacks on their fellow Republicans for refusing to support their plan to choke off Obamacare as a condition for funding the government. Cruz’s chief of staff is lambasting fellow conservatives like Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn for serving in the “surrender caucus.” His top political strategist has compared Mitch McConnell to Barack Obama. And the senator himself has said many Republicans are “scared” to wage this fight.

The results have sparked something of a GOP civil war over an issue that, ironically, the GOP is united behind — repealing Obamacare. Cruz’s strategy is a departure from the usually clubby chamber, as he’s grown increasingly alienated from his caucus.

The essence of the clash is this: Cruz can’t comprehend why his GOP colleagues don’t welcome the fight, while more senior Republicans think the junior Texan simply doesn’t understand — or care — about the dire political consequences for their party of a government shutdown. Plus, Cruz’s critics think the plan to repeal Obamacare is destined to fail.

But worries about a shutdown are falling on deaf ears.

“There is a powerful, defeatist approach among Republicans in Washington,” Cruz told conservative radio host Dana Loesch earlier this week. “I think they’re beaten down and they’re convinced that we can’t give a fight, and they’re terrified.”

Cruz isn’t alone in the crusade, which is also being waged by two other possible 2016 candidates — Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Sen. Mike Lee, the Utah Republican and tea party favorite, is also leading the charge. Cruz, Rubio and Lee held a discussion of their proposal on the Senate floor on Tuesday — one immediately rebutted by Coburn, whose office on Tuesday distributed a new Congressional Research Service report concluding that “if government were shut down, funding for Obamacare would still continue.”

But Cruz and his aides are going even further than the other conservatives, lashing out at GOP naysayers in unusually personal terms.

Good luck on defunding Obamacare without shutting down the gov't.  Keep up the good work,wingnuts! Speaker Pelosi will greet you in 2015

The beginning of the end for Republicans....
These Numbers Prove We’re Heading For A More Progressive America

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Back in the 1980’s, in the heyday of the conservative counter-revolution against the welfare state, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously remarked that “there is no alternative” to the unfettered, unregulated free market. Government action, she said, just does not work in terms of growing the economy and solving social problems. This view, abbreviated to the acronym TINA, not only became the cherished philosophy of conservatives but exerted hegemonic influence on overall public policy for decades, depreciating the role of government and privileging market forces.

But we may be reaching a turning point in attitudes toward government. A more robust government role in the economy may be the new TINA — because the people who will decide America’s future have had enough of untrammeled, cutthroat capitalism.

First, the deregulated, unsupervised free market has disgraced itself. The liberated free market delivered the Great Financial Crisis and its baby, the Great Recession. It has also produced levels of inequality not seen since the 1920’s and decades of stagnation in middle class income and wages. Indeed, the liberation of the market has really only delivered for the rich, while doing little for the rest of society.

These policy failures, however, are not enough on their own to change American views on government. What’s really going to turn the tide is ongoing demographic shifts that are increasing the political weight of groups for whom government action is not the enemy. Instead, government is viewed as a vital necessity to solve ongoing social problems and provide needed services and investments. That does not mean of course that government is seen as flawless. Far from it. But it is seen as the only way certain goals can be accomplished. TINA, in other words.

Take minorities. Minorities have been increasing their share of voters by around 2 percentage points every four years:

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That trend’s likely to continue far into the future, according to Census Bureau population projections:

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And what do minorities think about government? Broadly speaking, it’s pretty darn important and we should have more of it. In National Election Study data analyzed by political scientists Gary Segura and Shaun Bowler, 86 percent of blacks, 82 percent of Latinos and 69 percent of Asians agreed with the statement that “[government should] do more” as opposed “the less [government], the better.” Whites, in contrast, were roughly split down the middle between the two statements. Similarly, 78 percent of blacks, 74 percent of Latinos and 72 percent of Asians agreed that government has gotten bigger because the problems we face have gotten bigger rather than the claim that government has gotten involved where it shouldn’t; whites were again split down the middle. So the projected growth of the minority population will mean more and more citizens who see a positive, vital role for government:

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Another important change is the rise of the Millennial generation, the most pro-government generation by far in the US electorate. In the 2012 exit poll, 59 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds said government should be doing more to solve problems. Just 37 percent thought government was doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals. That is basically the reverse of the sentiment among seniors: just 35 percent of this age group thought government should be doing more, compared to 58 percent who thought government is doing too much.

Every year until 2018 we will be adding 4 million eligible voters from this pro-government generation to the electorate. By the year 2020, Millennials will be nearly two in five eligible voters. Thus the simple process of generational replacement is substituting pro-government younger vo

ters for older voters who are far less sympathetic to government action if not outright hostile:

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Unmarried women are also strongly pro-government and another important part of the new equation on government’s role. As the chart shows, unmarried women have been increasing their share of voters over time and were 23 percent of voters in the last election. Together with minorities and young voters, they are sometimes referred to collectively as the “Rising American Electorate” (RAE). And the RAE, as we would expect, has a notably friendly attitude toward government, including the need for new investment to create jobs and strengthen the economy long-term. In Democracy Corps’ 2012 post election survey, 62 percent of the RAE thought “we should invest now in infrastructure, education and technology, and re-hiring teachers and firefighters to get people back to work to make our country stronger in the long-term,” rather than cut government spending and reduce the deficit (34 percent). The rest of the electorate, by contrast, favored cutting spending over increasing investment by 53-40:

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And then there is addition by subtraction. What is the most hostile group in American politics to government action? White noncollege or working class voters. And what group is declining most rapidly as a share of the electorate? The very same group, as shown by the chart below. Every Presidential election has been bringing us an electorate whose share of white working class voters is 3 points lower than the previous election:

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As a final twist, data from CAP’s 2010 survey on attitudes toward government
and government reform indicate that white working class Millennials are significantly less anti-government than their older counterparts. This suggests that as the white working class continues to shrink it may also become less anti-government. That would truly cut the ground out from under the anti-government forces in American politics.

Thus, we’re likely headed to a future where the argument will not be about whether we need government action but how to deliver it. For the country’s sake, that future can’t come quickly enough.

What's interesting is that the chief targets of Repubs...Minorities,anti-immigration,and their never ending war on women are going to come back and bite them big time  

It also paints a clear picture of why they want to suppress voting by making it more and more difficult to vote.

Tea Party Frankensteins are alive and angry as hell  
GOP struggles to contain monster they created

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The Tea Party Turns on the GOP

If the first few town halls of the August Congressional recess are any indication, Republicans are “[struggling] to contain the monster they created.”

The monster in question is the unhinged, fact-free Tea Party juggernaut and its irrational and unceasing opposition to Obamacare. The GOP civil war over defunding Obamacare is breaking out into the open at town hall meetings across the country.

ThinkProgress’ Aviva Shen has the details:

   After 40 failed votes to repeal Obamacare, several Republicans are threatening anew to block government funding unless the health reform law gets defunded. This threat is nothing new; Republicans have repeatedly demanded that every appropriations bill include a provision to repeal Obamacare since the law was passed. Tea Party lawmakers in 2011 emphasized how dire the situation was, calling for a “blood oath” to “choke Obamacare.”

   Now, these empty threats are coming back to haunt Republicans who fear they will lose their seats if they take the government hostage. Several new town hall videos show lawmakers grappling with furious demands from constituents to shut down the government like the GOP said was needed to defund Obamacare.

   Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL)
   When confronted by one angry constituent, Schock dismissed his pro-shutdown colleagues for “beating their chests” on cable news without thinking about the real-life consequences. “How many weeks would you go without paying Social Security, and how many weeks would you go without paying the troops?” he asked. “And having a young lady walk into my office, whose husband is over in Afghanistan, who can’t pay her mortgage because I’m shutting the government down because I don’t like the health care law? [...] I’m just suggesting that when you get into a fight, politically, you gotta make sure you’re willing to kill the hostage you got. And I am not convinced yet that that’s a hostage we should take headed into this fight.” Watch it HERE.

   Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC)
   Pittenger flatly answered “no” when a constituent asked him if he would join the effort to defund Obamacare. Pittenger argued that the vote would be pointless because the Democrat-controlled Senate would never pass the bill. His constituents yelled back that they wanted to “make a stand to get conservatives back on board.” He later released a statement explaining that he would take “responsible steps to defund or replace Obamacare.” Watch it HERE.

   Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
   At a town hall on Monday, Fortenberry warned of “very significant consequences” should Republicans go forward with their plan, and said “There has to be a better way.” In response, one audience member declared, “We elected Republicans to fight for more conservative policies.”

   Many other prominent Republicans have refused to support the shutdown plan. On Sunday, former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said “there are more effective ways” to get rid of Obamacare. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) scoffed, “It’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” while Sen. Tom Cole (R-OK) called it “a temper tantrum.” Republican governors have also warned that their state economies would suffer enormously if the party takes the government hostage.

BOTTOM LINE: As a New Poll out today underscores, the GOP’s obsession with repealing — or even trying to shut down the government in order to defund — Obamacare is a political loser. This isn’t 2010 and the GOP’s repeated efforts to deny the security of quality, affordable health care to millions of Americans are dragging the party down.

How long before they start muttering about starting their own third party?  

Bad to worse? Not for this Democrat! 
From Bad to Worse

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GOP’s August Woes Continue

From birther eruptions to lonely diatribes against immigration reform to doubling down on their anti-science climate denialism, things are just not going very well out there for Republicans this August.

Here’s the latest news on Republicans’ long, hot August:

  GOP can’t turn off the climate science crazy: Salon’s Brian Beutler writes, “Going into August recess, GOP leaders were really hoping its members of Congress wouldn’t yield to a shared tendency to talk about climate science…To no one’s surprise, though, that’s a bit like hoping the scorpion won’t sting the frog. Already this month, several House Republicans have given in to their nature.”
  GOP Congressman calls for government shutdown unless Congress ‘defunds Obamacare this year’:
   During a town hall meeting in a tony suburb outside Sacramento on Tuesday, McClintock brought up the upcoming continuing resolution, which is necessary to keep government open but which many conservatives are targeting as a venue for another showdown over Obamacare. McClintock told the audience that he will vote against the continuing resolution — and thus for a government shutdown — unless the bill “defunds Obamacare this year.”
   Rand Paul: ‘I don’t think there is any particular evidence’ of black voters being prevented from voting: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a tea party senator with a long history of opposition to civil rights laws, told an audience in Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday that there is no evidence of black voters being excluded from the franchise.
   GOP Congressman argues against multiculturalism: ‘There’s only one race here, it’s the American race’: Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) took a strong stand against multiculturalism at a town hall meeting, arguing that immigrants need to shed their culture, become “the American race,” and if they’re unwilling to do so, “reevaluate” whether they want to be in this country in the first place. Fielding questions about immigration reform, McClintock told the audience on Tuesday evening that he worries current generations of immigrants aren’t assimilating like in the past but instead retaining the culture from their native land. “There’s only one race here, it’s the American race,” he implored to constituents.
   Rep. Steve King says Latino immigrants are from a ‘violent civilization,’ will bring ‘more violence’ to America:
   Rep. Steve King (R-IA) launched a vicious tirade against individuals from Latin America, claiming that the population gets more violent as one moves further south in Latin America

   Huge crowd turns out to pressure House GOP leader to back pathway to earned citizenship: A crowd of at least 1,000 people turned out today at a town hall meeting in the district of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the third-ranking GOP leader in the House of Representatives.

   Almost nobody shows up at Steve King’s anti-immigration reform “rally”: Rep. Steve King (R-IA) held a rally on Monday to oppose the immigration reform effort taking place on Capitol Hill, but no one, it seems, felt like going.

It's a lot harder to crawl back from the ledge these days,isn't it? 
Conservatives Revolt As GOP Tries To Calm Obamacare Shutdown Mania

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Just when they seemed to have the situation under control, Republican leaders are facing the wrath of conservatives who are furious that the heads of the party aren’t interested in risking a government shutdown over Obamacare this fall.

Conservative anxieties over the Affordable Care Act are reaching a boil as the law’s major provisions are set to take effect in the coming months. And an all-out grassroots mobilization during the month-long August recess by wealthy right-leaning groups like FreedomWorks and Heritage Action appears to be having an impact. Republican lawmakers have said their constituents are demanding they hold the line.

“I’m hearing a lot of anger that is right beneath the surface, ready to erupt,” said veteran Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), according to The Hill. Burgess, who has influence within his caucus on health policy, said the support for the defunding push was “virtually unanimous.”

The Senate Conservatives Fund, a tea party group founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint, planned to launch a statewide campaign targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is up for re-election next year, and aimed at making him “feel the heat” over Obamacare. The Kentuckian recently observed that a government shutdown “won’t stop Obamacare.”

The shutdown threat is being led by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT). “I think we should fund the government. I just don’t think we should fund ObamaCare,” Rubio said Thursday in Pensacola, flanked by businessmen who spoke out against the law.

Meanwhile, FreedomWorks has been keeping a tally of where GOP lawmakers stand on the issue. And Heritage Action’s CEO Michael Needham questioned the fortitude of House Republicans for backing away on the Obamacare shutdown push.

“Washington loves to play this game of saying something can’t be done,” he said on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program. “Politicians like to set expectations as low as possible so they can’t help but trip over them.”

Republican leaders have sought to pull their members back from the brink and impress upon them that the strategy is doomed to fail, and that not even a government shutdown would stop funding for vast chunks of Obamacare that aren’t subject to the annual appropriations process. And they’re correct: in order to actually postpone or weaken the core elements of law, President Obama would have to sign legislation that was passed by both chambers of Congress. Neither he nor Democrats have any intention of letting that happen. To persuade them to let the shutdown hostage go, senior Republicans have floated the idea of instead taking the debt ceiling hostage and threatening to let the country default if Democrats don’t agree to demands like unwinding Obamacare and dollar-for-dollar spending cuts.

But they’re facing a world of hurt from the conservative base.

“I have not heard, ‘Don’t shut down the government over ObamaCare,’” said Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), describing recent town hall events in his district. “I have heard, ‘This law is not ready for primetime, and we need to do anything we can to stop it.’”

All of this makes it harder for Republicans to avoid a shutdown without compromising their standing among the conservative base. If nothing else, it raises the bar on the sorts of demands they’ll have to make, and the brinkmanship they’ll have to engage in, when it comes time to raise the country’s borrowing limit later this fall. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has already made unrealistically high promises to his members regarding the fiscal battles and the added pressure of the shutdown threat complicates his already tenuous strategy.

“Republican Leaders will fund Obamacare. They will cave,” wrote RedState editor and Fox News contributor Erick Erickson. “They will have lied to you about their opposition. And in reality they will be conceding they give up the fight. They just hope you are distracted. … Stay focused. Show up and confront your Congressman. Tell him if he votes to fund Obamacare, he cannot really say he is fighting against it.”

And expending their political capital on averting needless crises significantly harms the prospects of House GOP leaders marshaling immigration reform through the chamber, a project their conservative base is pushing hard to scuttle.

Let's keep our fingers crossed! 3rd party here we come! 

David Vitter brings GOP civil war to Senate

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The dissension rampant in the Republican conference in the House of Representatives has spilled over to the Senate Republicans, where Sen. David Vitter's bizarre anti-Obamacare campaign is starting to piss off his Republican colleagues.

 

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A growing number of Republicans are scoffing at Louisiana Sen. David Vitter’s push to stop federal contributions that will help pay for health coverage for lawmakers and their staff under the new Obamacare exchanges. Vitter’s crusade has effectively put his GOP colleagues in the unenviable position of hurting themselves and their staff financially or siding with another political attack on a law the party universally despises.

   The latest pushback is another sign of how the long-running GOP fight to repeal Obamacare has suddenly degenerated into an internal Republican battle, prompting widespread concerns among party elders.

   “One of our strengths in this fight—even though we had minority numbers in both the House and the Senate when the law passed—was that no Republicans voted for it in the Senate,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of his party’s leadership. “Somehow, some of our members seem to think there’s forward progress in figuring out ways to divide us on something we’re totally united on. That can’t be a good idea.”

Again, has anyone ever accused David Vitter of having good ideas? Senate Republicans are probably just pissed the Vitter is making them look like House Republicans, because there's nothing that creates more disdain in a senator than the House.

Vitter isn't doing much to bring fellow Republicans to his side, either. When fellow Republicans like Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins and Saxby Chambliss raise the issue that Vitter's plan would take affordable health insurance away from congressional staff, and that that wasn't particularly fair, Vitter staffer Luke Bolar, (who would also lose his insurance) responded: “Lotta Americans getting screwed under Obamacare and won’t get a taxpayer subsidy.” So, basically, "fuck all my coworkers." That'll win friends and influence people.

The Crazy Party
By PAUL KRUGMAN

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Early this year, Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, made headlines by telling his fellow Republicans that they needed to stop being the “stupid party.” Unfortunately, Mr. Jindal failed to offer any constructive suggestions about how they might do that. And, in the months that followed, he himself proceeded to say and do a number of things that were, shall we say, not especially smart.

Nonetheless, Republicans did follow his advice. In recent months, the G.O.P. seems to have transitioned from being the stupid party to being the crazy party.

I know, I’m being shrill. But as it grows increasingly hard to see how, in the face of Republican hysteria over health reform, we can avoid a government shutdown — and maybe the even more frightening prospect of a debt default — the time for euphemism is past.

It helps, I think, to understand just how unprecedented today’s political climate really is.

Divided government in itself isn’t unusual and is, in fact, more common than not. Since World War II, there have been 35 Congresses, and in only 13 of those cases did the president’s party fully control the legislature.

Nonetheless, the United States government continued to function. Most of the time divided government led to compromise; sometimes to stalemate. Nobody even considered the possibility that a party might try to achieve its agenda, not through the constitutional process, but through blackmail — by threatening to bring the federal government, and maybe the whole economy, to its knees unless its demands were met.

True, there was the government shutdown of 1995. But this was widely recognized after the fact as both an outrage and a mistake. And that confrontation came just after a sweeping Republican victory in the midterm elections, allowing the G.O.P. to make the case that it had a popular mandate to challenge what it imagined to be a crippled, lame-duck president.

Today, by contrast, Republicans are coming off an election in which they failed to retake the presidency despite a weak economy, failed to retake the Senate even though far more Democratic than Republican seats were at risk, and held the House only through a combination of gerrymandering and the vagaries of districting. Democrats actually won the popular ballot for the House by 1.4 million votes. This is not a party that, by any conceivable standard of legitimacy, has the right to make extreme demands on the president.

Yet, at the moment, it seems highly likely that the Republican Party will refuse to fund the government, forcing a shutdown at the beginning of next month, unless President Obama dismantles the health reform that is the signature achievement of his presidency. Republican leaders realize that this is a bad idea, but, until recently, their notion of preaching moderation was to urge party radicals not to hold America hostage over the federal budget so they could wait a few weeks and hold it hostage over the debt ceiling instead. Now they’ve given up even on that delaying tactic. The latest news is that John Boehner, the speaker of the House, has abandoned his efforts to craft a face-saving climbdown on the budget, which means that we’re all set for shutdown, possibly followed by debt crisis.

How did we get here?

Some pundits insist, even now, that this is somehow Mr. Obama’s fault. Why can’t he sit down with Mr. Boehner the way Ronald Reagan used to sit down with Tip O’Neill? But O’Neill didn’t lead a party whose base demanded that he shut down the government unless Reagan revoked his tax cuts, and O’Neill didn’t face a caucus prepared to depose him as speaker at the first hint of compromise.

No, this story is all about the G.O.P. First came the southern strategy, in which the Republican elite cynically exploited racial backlash to promote economic goals, mainly low taxes for rich people and deregulation. Over time, this gradually morphed into what we might call the crazy strategy, in which the elite turned to exploiting the paranoia that has always been a factor in American politics — Hillary killed Vince Foster! Obama was born in Kenya! Death panels! — to promote the same goals.

But now we’re in a third stage, where the elite has lost control of the Frankenstein-like monster it created.

So now we get to witness the hilarious spectacle of Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal, pleading with Republicans to recognize the reality that Obamacare can’t be defunded. Why hilarious? Because Mr. Rove and his colleagues have spent decades trying to ensure that the Republican base lives in an alternate reality defined by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Can we say “hoist with their own petard”?

Of course, the coming confrontations are likely to damage America as a whole, not just the Republican brand. But, you know, this political moment of truth was going to happen sooner or later. We might as well have it now.