Eugene Robinson on The GOP’s growing divide

[ProSense]

First, Steve Benen:

‘No fools on our ticket’

By Steve Benen

Just over the last few months, we’ve seen reports from the New York Times, Bloomberg News, and the Washington Post on the simmering tensions between Corporate America and Tea Party Republicans, driving a wedge into the GOP coalition. With party primaries looming, talk of a “Republican civil war” abounds.

Some of the party’s major players are even putting their money where their mouths are. This Wall Street Journal piece yesterday was circulated far and wide in Republican circles.

Republican leaders and their corporate allies have launched an array of efforts aimed at diminishing the clout of the party’s most conservative activists and promoting legislation instead of confrontation next year. <…>

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce early next year plans to roll out an aggressive effort – expected to cost at least $50 million – to support establishment, business-friendly candidates in primaries and the general election, with an aim of trying to win a Republican Senate majority.

“Our No. 1 focus is to make sure, when it comes to the Senate, that we have no loser candidates,” said the business group’s top political strategist, Scott Reed. “That will be our mantra: No fools on our ticket.”

Though Reed did not specify who would qualify as a “fool,” it’s not hard to look back at major Senate races from the last couple of cycles and know exactly the kind of candidates he’s referencing (O’Donnell, Akin, Mourdock, Angle, et al). In other words, when Reed and the Republican Party’s Chamber of Commerce wing talk about “loser candidates” and “fools,” they’re obviously talking about right-wing Tea Party favorites.

Also note, there’s been ample analysis this year noting that Corporate America may want to overcome extremist candidates in GOP primaries, but if this wing of the party doesn’t commit real resources, Tea Partiers will prevail. It’s worth acknowledging, then, that $50 million in support of establishment candidates is a considerable sum.

- more -

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/no-fools-our-ticket

Eugene Robinson on The GOP’s growing divide

by teacherken

The Republican Party, which should have the wind at its back, enters 2014 in disarray bordering on open warfare.

That is how the Pulitzer Prize winner begins this column in today's Washington Post

The "should" can be derived from the recent CNN poll showing a 5 point preference for a generic Republican over a generic Democrat for Congress, at 49-44, a significant turn-around in the last few months, fueled largely by the bumpy roll-out of the Affordable Care Act's sign-up provisions (which I might note has been exacerbated both by how the press has covered it and by the administration's somewhat ham-handed responses).

He cautions that this far out such polls, representing a 13 point swing from the 50-42 Democratic advantage a while back, are not determinative of what WILL happen, but can be a real indicator of an opportunity for the party leading in the poll.

But as Robinson notes, there is a key problem that prevents Republicans from truly taken advantage of the situation, which is:

If only the GOP had a message.

<...>

The problem can be stated fairly succinctly: while almost all Republicans oppose ACA, they are have strong disagreement on what to do about it.

And those internecine battles have the potential to be truly divisive. Or as Robinson, with his gift for words, puts it:

For Republicans — to invert a classic George W. Bush bon mot — Obamacare has somehow become a divider, not a uniter. In a year when the GOP may have a legitimate chance of capturing the Senate, several primary contests appear likely to devolve into bloody battles over Obama’s health-care reforms — not whether to oppose them, but how.

He gives the example of Georgia, when very conservative Republican Representative Jack Kingston, who has vote many times to defund "Obamacare," suggested that might not be responsible to simply step back and let the health care law fail on its own he was severely savaged by his primary opponents. Here I might note that the Tea Party types seem determined to keep going down the paths that have cost the Republicans severely in previous elections - defunding Obamacare, shutting down the government either by blocking debt limit increases (still on the table) or refusing a reasonable Continuing Resolution to fund the government (off the table for now with the agreement negotiated by Ryan and Murray). While some of he battles have been postponed until after the deadline to file for primaries in some states to avoid generating more extreme primary opponents, the danger has not gone away, and in states like Georgia the possibility of someone very extreme getting the nomination fuels some optimism by Democrats of taking back that Senate seat, especially given the Democratic nominee is almost certainly going to be the highly regarded daughter of former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn.
Of course, it is not just on healthcare that we can see the divide:

On a range of issues, this is the party’s essential dilemma. Ideologues want to continue the practice of massive, uncompromising resistance to anything Obama tries to accomplish. Pragmatists want the GOP to demonstrate that it can be reasonable and trustworthy, on the theory that voters want their government to function well and won’t put a bunch of anti-government extremists in charge of running it.

But somehow those on the extreme right have forgotten how poorly candidates like Ken Buck, Richard Mourdock, Todd Akins, Christine O'Donnell, and Sharron Angle have done in the past two Senate elections, which is why the Democrats remain in control.

The question of how the GOP should proceed really should be a no-brainer. But after cynically taking advantage of the huge jolt of energy provided by tea party activists, the Republican establishment is finding that these true believers don’t necessarily listen when they’re told to go sit in a corner and shut up.

Especially when the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are fomenting those true believers as a means of generating support for their own ambitions for the Presidency.

Robinson observes the recent pronouncements by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce that it wants "no loser candidates" running for the Senate. When they say their mantra is "no losers on our ticket" he offer sthis brief rejoinder to end his column:

Wanna bet?

I truly hope the Republicans make ACA an issue - by election time the positive effects will be evident, and absent a unified Republican alternative that maintain some of the benefits people are already receiving - no pre-existing conditions, kids staying on parents' policies until 26 - Republicans will be seen as trying to take away a benefit that increasing numbers of people are valuing.

It would of course help were the coverage by the main stream media not so histrionic, not so determined to see more of a crisis than exists, more willing to discuss the benefits now being received by people who previously could not afford health care coverage. Perhaps we are seeing some of that. And in some states the results are truly problematic for Republicans, for example, in Kentucky, where Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell faces a real dilemma of a strong primary opponent to his right and should he survive a centrist Democrat in Alison Lundergarn Grimes.

No losers on the Republican ticket?

I think I agree with Robinson:

Wanna bet?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/27/1265518/-Eugene-Robinson-on-The-GOP-s-growing-divide

All Dems have to do is stay united.




Note:

Kos Media, LLC Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified

[ProSense]

1. Kick!

Too bad this isn't about Democratic disarray, huh?

[Gothmog]

2. Juanita Jean is wondering how the GOP will keep fools off the ticket

http://www.juanitajean.com/2013/12/27/let-us-hope-they-have-a-gun-or-something/

If you’re like me, and Lord help you if you are, you are probably wondering how they plan on stopping that.

I mean, let’s face it, That’s a mighty tall order there. I’d be more willing to try to get a drink out of a firehose than find the fools in the GOP and line them up in a row. The only shot I’d have at doing it is waiting for them to need to be watered and sneak up on them with a circus tent. Even that sounds kinda risky since so many of them need watering once a week.

The Chamber means the Tea Partiers. They think the Tea Partiers are fools because they not only want people to starve like the Chamber does, they also want people to not be gay when they starve.

I operate under the “you broke it; you bought it” theory here. The Chamber endorsed some of these fools.

To me, this is kinda like standing at the picnic table in Texas in July and saying, “Okay, no ants on this table, dammit,” and expecting the ants to pay heed.

Hey, Chamber of Commerce, you don’t have a “ticket,” Honey. You have a mess. A helluva mess.

[Jamaal510]

3. Sounds like the GOP

has been diagnosed with the DemocraticUnderground Disease, where they can't agree even amongst themselves and are conducting circular firing squads over purity tests.

[ProSense]

4. Kick! n/t

[Hekate]

5. Ho, ho. 5th Rec.

[ProSense]

6. Thanks. n/t