Devin Nunes spills the beans on the Republican civil war

[Finagle]

@Wesley_Clark

They aren’t afraid of him they are afraid of being primaried in a gerrymandered district where about half of GOP primary voters identify with the tea party.

So, if losing your job is the worst thing that can happen vs. shutting down the entire government, you’d think there’d be a few Reps with enough principals to take one for the team. Out of 234 Republicans, there should be a few with spines.

[GIGObuster]

More beans spilled, the fear still shows as the Republicans do not want to go on record:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/ted-cruz-blasted-by-angry-gop-colleagues-government-shutdown-97753.html?hp=t2_3

Ted Cruz faced a barrage of hostile questions Wednesday from angry GOP senators, who lashed the Texas tea party freshman for helping prompt a government shutdown crisis without a strategy to end it.

At a closed-door lunch meeting in the Senate’s Mansfield Room, Republican after Republican pressed Cruz to explain how he would propose to end the bitter budget impasse with Democrats, according to senators who attended the meeting. A defensive Cruz had no clear plan to force an end to the shutdown — or explain how he would defund Obamacare, as he has demanded all along, sources said.

…

“It seems that there is nothing the media likes to cover more than disagreements among Republicans, and apparently some senators are content to fuel those stories with anonymous quotes,” Cruz told POLITICO. “Regardless, my focus — and, I would hope, the focus of the rest of the conference — is on stopping Harry Reid’s shutdown, ensuring that vital government priorities are funded, and preventing the enormous harms that Obamacare is inflicting on millions of Americans.”

But as the government shutdown heads into day three, a number of Republican senators privately blame the Texas freshman for contributing to the mess their party finds itself in. And now that they’re in it, they say it’s up to Cruz to help find a solution.

“It was very evident to everyone in the room that Cruz doesn’t have a strategy – he never had a strategy, and could never answer a question about what the end-game was,” said one senator who attended the meeting. “I just wish the 35 House members that have bought the snake oil that was sold could witness what was witnessed today at lunch.”

[BrainGlutton]

@Wesley_Clark

The tea partiers will go on a war against liberals or the government before they go into an actual physical war with moderate republicans.

Of course they would target those people (the same way Islamic extremists target moderate muslims or communists target social democrats). But they wouldn’t be the first target in an actual civil war IMO.

Well, they’re mostly too old to shoot straight anyway.

Which, of course, does not make them less of a threat.

[Budget_Player_Cadet]

Man, what a RINO.

[Wesley_Clark]

@Finagle

So, if losing your job is the worst thing that can happen vs. shutting down the entire government, you’d think there’d be a few Reps with enough principals to take one for the team. Out of 234 Republicans, there should be a few with spines.

You’d think. But it was my understanding there were republicans who wanted to support the stimulus but didn’t for the reason of losing a primary. I don’t know how many GOP members of the house will support a clean spending bill, so far 21 have stepped forward. That number may go up.

Here's A Tally Of Which House Republicans Are Ready To Just Fund The Government

But I’m assuming you need Boehner on board, and I don’t know if he will go along with it.

[jayjay]

@Wesley_Clark

You’d think. But it was my understanding there were republicans who wanted to support the stimulus but didn’t for the reason of losing a primary. I don’t know how many GOP members of the house will support a clean spending bill, so far 21 have stepped forward. That number may go up.

Here's A Tally Of Which House Republicans Are Ready To Fund The Government, No Strings Attached | HuffPost Latest News

But I’m assuming you need Boehner on board, and I don’t know if he will go along with it.

As long as Pelosi can corral all of the Dems (which shouldn’t be hard on this), they only need 18 Republicans to flip. Like you said, the kicker is getting Boehner to bring it to the floor, and Boehner gets the galloping shudders every time he even considers breaking the Hastert Rule. It’s happened (I think) twice in this Congress and both times he was lambasted. If he does bring a clean CR to the floor, he’s going to lose his speakership, most likely.

[elucidator]

Maybe not. Could bounce in the Republican’s favor, if they can present the image of a party that is not the Tea Party’s bitch. Approval could go way up. Some independents who drifted away in disgust might come back, vote in the primaries, balance off the Insane Clown Posse.

I want a Republican Party. Car needs brakes as much as it needs an engine. If conservatives define themselves as mindful of the need for change and progress but concerned mainly with prudent caution…cool with that, that can be useful. We of the progressive left might be wrong, the fact that it has never happened doesn’t make it impossible.

Also, they are handy to blame shit on. If the Moonbat Vegan Caucus demands English as a second language funding for gay whales, well, we can say we’d really love to, but the Republicans won’t let us. That can be useful.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@jayjay

As long as Pelosi can corral all of the Dems (which shouldn’t be hard on this), they only need 18 Republicans to flip. Like you said, the kicker is getting Boehner to bring it to the floor, and Boehner gets the galloping shudders every time he even considers breaking the Hastert Rule. It’s happened (I think) twice in this Congress and both times he was lambasted. If he does bring a clean CR to the floor, he’s going to lose his speakership, most likely.

Sounds like there’s a Parliamentary trick they can try that does an end-run around Boehner:

Dems have hit on a way to use a “discharge petition,” which forces a House vote if a majority of Representatives signs it, to try to force the issue. Previously, it was thought this could not work, because a discharge petition takes 30 legislative days to ripen, so if this were tried with the clean CR that passed the Senate, this couldn’t bear fruit until some time in November.

But now House Democrats say they have found a previously filed bill to use as a discharge petition — one that would fund the government at sequester levels.
…
Dems say that if they get enough signatures, they’d be able to force a vote by October 14th.

It’s possible that Boehner would secretly love this plan, because it would get the CR to a vote (which I think he wants) without him having to show some backbone; he could then holler at the Democrats for their underhanded sneaky subversion of Democracy, and everyone’s happy.

[jayjay]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

It’s possible that Boehner would secretly love this plan

Depends on how deep his Stockholm Syndrome is at this point.

[Crane]

Just watched the CNN Video - Great Stuff!!!
Crane