"Moderates" flip-flopping on clean CR

[Mass]

Once again, the solution is in the hands of the Republican leadership. We cannot hope for the Moderates to help. They WILL NOT.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/08/20871189-gop-moderates-failing-put-up-or-shut-up-challenge

GOP moderates failing put-up-or-shut-up challenge

The government shutdown could end immediately if the House passed a temporary spending measure, already approved by the Senate, with no extraneous policies or strings attached. And as Rachel explained last night, plenty of House Republicans are already on record saying they support such a bill, making this a bipartisan solution.

But this morning, a funny thing started happening. Some of the so-called GOP "moderates" decided they might be better off flip-flopping.

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) supported a clean bill, but reversed course this morning. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) was on record backing this resolution, but he too switched sides. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who's been so critical of his party's radical wing that he compared Republican extremists to "lemmings with suicide vests," even started lying about his support for a clean CR.

...

The problem, of course, is that the Huffington Post has a recording of Nunes backing a clean spending bill for the federal government.

And while Nunes' dishonesty reflects poorly on him personally, it also helps represent a larger problem in Republican politics -- "moderates" have disappeared, and when it starts to look like they might reappear, they prove to be completely useless.
...

[Pretzel_Warrior]

1. Not a big surprise

[City Lights]

2. This is not surprising.

The lemmings are falling in line.

[Fumesucker]

3. Moderates do too have principles

They just keep them in an undisclosed location.

[warrior1]

4. cowards

[Blaukraut]

5. They're being whipped behind the scenes

Someone is either threatening them or promising something in order for them to fall in line.

[ProSense]

6. Republicans votes would be there to reopen government, if they weren't such cowards

Republicans votes would be there to reopen government, if they weren't such cowards

by Laura Clawson

Are there enough votes in the House for a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government? It turns out that's not a simple question, since many Republicans are cowards who in one breath indicate that they'd like to reopen the government with a clean bill and in the next, presumably having noticed the glares across the room of their tea party colleagues, insist that they never said any such thing. CNN sums up the situation:

All 200 Democrats and 17 Republicans support passing a continuing resolution with no additional legislative strings attached that would reopen the federal government, which has been partially closed for a week over a bitter policy dispute between Republicans and Democrats on health care. The number 217 is significant in that it is the minimum needed for the measure to win approval in the House. <...>

But this does not mean a vote will happen any time soon, given that these Republicans have not indicated a willingness to try to force Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to bring a continuing resolution with no strings attached to the floor for a vote.

That's an extremely, uh, polite way of putting it: They "have not indicated a willingness." To put it another way, some Republicans from relatively swingy districts realize this could spell trouble for them in the general election, but they're not willing to risk a well-funded challenge from the right in the Republican primary. And some Republicans, while they'd like to keep people from getting health care and have no objection to kicking kids out of Head Start, still think this is a little far to go for that. Added to primary worries, they're not willing to risk retaliation by their teabagger colleagues, or by John Boehner doing the bidding of the teabaggers. They're cowards, knowing that a clean CR is the best thing for the nation, but not willing to do one damn thing to make that happen.

As a result, Boehner gets to claim with a straight face that the votes aren't there. Because, while they are there, the Republicans who would so vote are too afraid to push Boehner, while the extremist vandal caucus is in no way afraid to push him to keep the government closed and probably force the nation into default on top of it, and he's under their sway. The continuing shutdown, in short, is because the Republican caucus is composed of the most poisonous possible mixture of bullies and cowards.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/08/1245195/-Republicans-votes-would-be-there-to-reopen-government-if-they-weren-t-such-cowards

[hootinholler]

7. It's almost like they all got a phone call last night or something

Perhaps they were reconsidering their next primary race after that.

Perhaps they don't quite understand that if they aren't in a tea party gerrymandered district, the shutdown puts them at risk in the 2014 general.

[Old and In the Way]

8. I wonder - blackmail or criminal threatening?

The GOP is morphing into an Organized Crime Party...I really wonder what the Party has on their caucus.

[Roland99]

9. Tom DeLay is out of jail now, eh? Anyone thinking threats of primary opponents and yanking funding?

fucking cowards..

[berni_mccoy]

10. Seems like they are saying that now because they are told to by Boehner

in order to relieve pressure to bring it to a vote.

He was called on his bluff and he needs a stack of chips to back it up.

I suspect if it was brought to a vote, they would pass it.

[Mass]

11. Yes, they are coward. But, as long as they are cowards, there is no solution.

[berni_mccoy]

12. I didn't see this before the conversation in the other post. I see what you are saying now.

If this is the case, the whips are tightening the positions and everyone is hunkering down.

They will lose this fight however, and that will be even more angst for them after this is over.

[Old and In the Way]

14. They were "selected" for that attribute, no doubt, when they were recruited for office.

Independents need not apply. A GOP must pledge allegiance to the Party 1st. Their goals uber alles.

[Uncle Joe]

15. That's ok, the signs of them cracking have already been exposed, the tipping point will come when

the cowards become more afraid of the political backlash awaiting than the fear of angering their party "leadership."

That political backlash is cumulative and building on a daily basis, as this drags out, at some point Boehner and the Teahadists will not be able to scare them back in to line.

[grasswire]

13. they're being blackmailed.

What we really need in this country is elected officials who aren't afraid to be primaried.

Maybe term limits would solve that.