But before I get to that, let me just note that it may in fact be time to physically remove Karl Rove from DC and drop him into West Monroe LA, so that the Duck Dynasty boys can teach him what it’s like to live outside of his full-time political bubble. Because frankly, he has become one of the biggest enemies to conservatism / classical liberalism, using his omnipresent bully pulpit on FOX News to “counsel” us on the best ways to surrender, grow the government at a pace more conducive to “compassionate conservatism” (which, while slower than the Marxist onslaught still has in the end the same effect: a federal Leviathan and a permanent ruling class, as well as the devaluing of the individual into economic units that technocratic Republican politicians will then manage), and put forth candidates that simply can’t win — therefore, creating even more of a furor and therefore soliciting more political donations for the Republican establishment, even as he keeps the Party in a constant state of electoral purgatory while claiming he’s the very man to bring it to the political promised land.
He needs to be ridden out of town on a rail, with a white board taped to his back that says “Kick Me!”
But I digress.
From the Morning Jolt today:
Yes, this is weird.
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said Sunday morning that he’d received opposition research from other Republicans about Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in advance of Cruz’s appearance this morning, a serious indication of how upset the GOP is with the Senator leading the risky charge to defund ObamaCare.
“This has been one of the strangest weeks I’ve ever had in Washington,” Wallace said. “As soon as we listed Ted Cruz as our featured guest this week, I got unsolicited research and questions, not from Democrats but from top Republicans, to hammer Cruz.”
Rarely does a comment launch so many unanswered follow-up questions. Which top Republicans? What kind of questions? And when Wallace says, “unsolicited research,” does he mean, “here’s some polling numbers” or does he mean “here’s some dirt on Cruz” or “here’s a question that will put Cruz on the spot”?
Back on Fox News Sunday:
“This was a strategy laid out by Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz without any consultation with their colleagues,” said Karl Rove. “With all due respect to my junior Senator from Texas, I suspect this is the first time that the end game was described to any Republican Senator. They had to tune in to listen to you to find out what Ted’s next step was in the strategy.”
In case you missed it, here is the strategy:
Listen up, Senate Republicans. Sen. Ted Cruz has some advice on how to win the defund-Obamacare fight in the Senate this week, and it’s a little counterintuitive.
The Texas Republican is advising his Republican colleagues to filibuster the House’s continuing resolution — the very resolution he wants to become law.
The House passed a bill Friday to keep government funded past the Sept. 30 deadline that included language that defunds the Affordable Care Act. Cruz is applying some conventional wisdom, assuming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will strip the language defunding Obamacare as he has promised, using a simple majority in the Senate after reaching the 60-vote cloture threshold to end debate.
“If Reid pursues this plan — if he insists on using a 50-vote threshold to fund Obamacare with a partisan vote of only Democrats — then I hope that every Senate Republican will stand together and oppose cloture on the bill in order to keep the House bill intact and not let Harry Reid add Obamacare funding back in,” Cruz said in a statement.
— My. That presentation of the strategy didn’t come across as dismissive and snide, now, did it?
The idea is that as the deadline to avoid a government shutdown approaches, Senate Democrats will fold.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a Cruz ally, thinks the public’s opposition to Obamacare will help persuade Democrats to oppose the president’s signature health care law. “If the American people make their voices heard now and start contacting Senate Democrats, I truly believe that, along with a unified Senate Republican Caucus, we will convince enough Democrats to finally do the right thing for the country,” Lee said.
Reid says he and his caucus won’t fold. The fact that he says they won’t doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t, but . . . it’s worth noting that he’s saying that.
“I have said it before, but it seems to bear repeating: The Senate will not pass any bill that defunds or delays Obamacare,” Reid said. “I am glad to see more and more of my moderate Republican colleagues speaking up against the vocal, irrational minority within their ranks.”
Sunday night, Andy McCarthy spelled out the justification for the Cruz strategy:
The current defunding effort is a put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is moment: Risk a government shutdown over Obamacare funding under circumstances where Republicans could be blamed, but where (a) Obamacare is very unpopular and its downside consequences are just beginning to kick in; (b) the defunding strategy includes a commitment to fund the rest of government so it can be demonstrated that Obama would really be the one shutting down the government over Obamacare; and (c) Obama himself has already unilaterally and unconstitutionally defunded aspects of Obamacare, including repugnant accommodations for big corporations, Obama insiders, and members of Congress — such that, if the government shuts down, Republicans can compellingly argue that they are only insisting that the American people get the same relief from this awful law that Obama cronies, the ruling class, and the politically-connected get.
It may not work. Even if it doesn’t, though, it could have long-term benefits as Democrats up for election in 2014 and 2016 — Democrats who have gotten Obamacare fixes for themselves — are forced to defend Obamacare in the light of day. And for conservatives, it is a chance to see which Republicans are for real and which ones talk a good game as long as it’s just a game.
Okay, but what if the public decides that they hate a government shutdown and its disruptions more than they hate Obamacare? Aren’t Democrats who have gotten Obamacare fixes for themselves going to be forced to defend Obamacare in the light of day whether or not there’s a government shutdown?
Geraghty is echoing a constant refrain from the naysayers, but if we look closely at what his concern is, how seriously should we take such a position? Geraghty worries that there’s a potential that the public will hate a government shutdown more than they do ObamaCare, a position that of course can be mitigated by a concerted and unified effort to make the case to the public –who already hates ObamaCare — about what allowing it to proceed might mean to them and their families.
Too, Jim skips right over the obvious, which he buries in his formulation: if the public hates the government shutdown and its disruptions more than they hate ObamaCare, the GOP can point out — with roll call records and daily House resolutions — that it is not they who are shutting the government down, and that in fact, they are actively trying to fund it, but the public is being denied an open government by a President and a Senate Speaker willing to keep the government shut down unless they are able to force Americans into a system that Congress and Obama’s cronies are being exempted from.
This is such an easy and compelling argument that one wonders why there is even any hesitation about this plan.
But of course, the why is predictable, because — in keeping with the “pragmatism” adopted by the “realists” in the GOP — it has nothing to do with principle and everything to do with perception: the press will blame the GOP for the shutdown, regardless of who is actually responsible. And the GOP, for its part, has spent the better part of several months giving the Democrats and the progressive press soundbites to make just that case.
In fact, Senator Burr (R-primary the SHIT out the fucker) gave Obama a line he is now taking on the “campaign” trail.
And this, more than anything, frightens the GOP establishment.
To put it bluntly, they are putting their political comfort ahead of what is best for the American people and, more specifically, what is the demand of its base. And that is no way to run a political Party, unless your object for having a Party is merely to avoid the wrath of the left and milk whatever you can from the leftovers of the federal teat.
Geraghty further asks, “Aren’t Democrats who have gotten Obamacare fixes for themselves going to be forced to defend Obamacare in the light of day whether or not there’s a government shutdown?” Yes. But during a government shutdown for which it is they who are responsible, the glaring hypocrisy — which, granted, means little to the antifoundationalists on the left — of taking exemptions for themselves, then being willing to shut down the government so that most of the American public can’t enjoy the same, will nevertheless resonate even more with more centrist Democrats and Reagan Democrats, and as such create constituency pressure on the Democrats to defend their special status.
It is clear to me that the GOP establishment is not up for this fight. But that may not matter. Because if we keep at them, they are going to be forced to engage in it, however reluctantly, until such time where they may finally see exactly how this can play out, should they just embrace it rather than fear it.
Because not only will it work, but it would weaken Obama’s refrains about “fairness” — and put him on the spot where he is forced to defend the exemptions he’s given to some and not others (illegally, I should add), while simultaneously refusing to agree to funding plans for the rest of the government unless he can continue to pick and choose who benefits from his imperial decrees.
Not terribly fair, it seems to me. And surely makes it so that only some of us “have skin in the game.”
Honestly: could this fight be any easier? Or do we have to keep pretending that it’s a difficult fight with dire consequences for Republicans should they actually decide to act on behalf of the American people and stop an unpopular law?
Dead solid perfect.
Thank you. You’ve written a perfect piece. It addresses every criticism, excuse and whiny complaint I’ve heard repeated endlessly for the last week. I’m so tired of them although I do get some satisfaction watching their public (and on-the-record) displays of pure desperation.
rampaging visigoths
The Group That Helped Bring About Cruz’s Victory Wants to Defeat McConnell
Geraghty is echoing a constant refrain from the naysayers, but if we look closely at what his concern is, how seriously should we take such a position? Geraghty worries that there’s a potential that the public will hate a government shutdown more than they do ObamaCare, a position that of course can be mitigated by a concerted and unified effort to make the case to the public –who already hates ObamaCare — about what allowing it to proceed might mean to them and their families.
It can be, but how much do you trust making the case to be articulated?
I wonder if some of Obamunistcare–the most egregious parts–*need* to be implemented, just so those who swallowed the Obamajizz all these years will finally get the indigestion they so deserve. And then in 2014, we can have a good political stomach pumping of the body politic, like there was in 2010. The unions are starting to get sick.
It’s a fight worth having even if we ostensibly lose.
“They’re forcing you to eat slop they won’t feed to their own pigs.”
Even an LIV can understand THAT.
I wonder if some of Obamunistcare–the most egregious parts–*need* to be implemented,
Once implemented, they’re never rooted out.
See, cf. Ipomoea arvensis, Field bindweed.
(c) Obama himself has already unilaterally and unconstitutionally defunded aspects of Obamacare, including repugnant accommodations for big corporations, Obama insiders, and members of Congress — such that, if the government shuts down, Republicans can compellingly argue that they are only insisting that the American people get the same relief from this awful law that Obama cronies, the ruling class, and the politically-connected get.
If this can be repeated until even the thickest of LIVs get it, I have hope.
Oh my: McConnell, Cornyn won’t join Cruz and Lee in filibustering House’s CR to defund ObamaCare
Primary Cornyn said the Texan. Yeah he’s talking about retiring. But for the sake of courtesy let his chosen successor candidate know why he’s fucked.
Geraghty seems to think the Republican base owes something to the apparat.
Let me rephrase: he seems to think we owe something to the GOP apparat that the GOP apparat would want to receive.
A proper Texian would likely dispense with the trouble of a primary campaign, and instead place a nice round hole between Cornyn’s eyebrows, then walk away mumbling something about “some men just need . . .”.
Sitting Out the Battle; Fighting a Fake Fight
Hey the GOP wanted a new base and now they have one. Too bad it’s 20% smaller than the old one but hey…tiger blood and winning.
Ted Cruz speech on floor of Senate today
9/4/13 poll
Poll: Half of GOP voters in Boehner’s district welcome primary challenge to speaker
Every time I switch to Fox and see Rove I click away.
He has nothing to say that I want to hear.
I usually tell him, “Shut up, Karl. You tool!”
Then I go back to whatever I was doing before I hear him or saw his fat face.
I have more colorful words for Obozo that also include hand gestures.
Only 20%? I didn’t realize they were doing so well.
Well the GOP are busy trying to sponge off and then stiff arm that new reduced base too, so I think it will continue to erode as the pattern of non representative behavior becomes more and more self evident as the product itselfand not a correctable flaw within the product.
Originally I wanted Harry Reid presented with a bill that funded everything, including Obamacare, but only if all the delays, waivers, exemptions (etc) were legislatively cancelled… then see how Dingy and the Unicorn King handled that.
But I’m good with Cruz’s gambit; at least the dude’s fighting, which Rove and his fellow Stupid Party “leadership” asshats have shown for too long they have no stomach to do.
It disgusts and amazes me that some still think of Karl Rove as a “brain”. From Hispandering to illegal aliens to Medicare Entitlement upgrading, he has proven a disaster.
If only Bush the Younger really *had been* the Bible-Thumping cowboy who wouldn’t listen to “nuanced” and “sophisticated” “wonks” like Karl Rove.