Posted on 09/28/2013 8:29:24 AM PDT by Hojczyk
One Senate aide blamed Corker’s spotlight-grabbing role as Cruz’s foil on weak Republican leadership. “Because our leadership has not led for a number of months because of electoral politics, Senator McCain and Senator Graham and Senator Corker have sort of emerged as sort of de facto leaders in a leadership vacuum,” he says. “I like Senator Cornyn, I like Senator McConnell, I respect them, I know their colleagues respect them, but in fairness there just has not been a whole lot of direction, there’s really been no strategy.”
“It might not work,” he adds of Cruz and Lee’s efforts (we spoke a few minutes before the vote), “but what’s the alternative that leadership or anyone else is offering? What’s Bob Corker’s plan?”
It’s messy, and there’s plenty of tension to go around. When asked about the level of frustration directed at his boss, an aide for a senator involved in the defund efforts says, laughing, that “it’s about as high as I’ve ever seen it.”
“I wouldn’t want to test it to see if it could go much higher,” he adds. “Change is hard. People don’t like changes.”
They also don’t like being targeted by members of their own party. Senator Lindsey Graham reiterated to me his frustration with some of his fellow Senate Republicans. “My fate is in my hands, not theirs, and they said some things about our colleagues that I just think are really out of line,” he adds of Cruz et al. “At the end of the day,” he continues, “they’ve got to decide what kind of role they want to play, I’ve got to decide what kind of role I want to play to grow the Republican party and to save the country.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
I am not convinced that old skank will be the rat nominee. The Chicago mob is not about to turn over the White House to anybody.
Yeah. That’ll work.
Absolutely. Reminds me of a company I left 3 years ago. Loved the job, but for 3 years the employees got pay cuts or no raises so the CEO could walk away with a $14m retirement package.
CORRECT!!!
Post of the month!
I swear to God Linda Graham would complain bitterly if he was hanged with a new rope.
We will have to work within the GOP for the 2014 elections.
If the GOP fails us in 2014,all bets are off.
In many ways, the 2014 elections are a red line for America.
That is a truly mind boggling statement because the two used to be synonymous. Sadly, however, it is the state to which we have fallen.
I voted for McCains challenger in the primary. Didn’t win. We will try again next time.
All you is keep trying.
The 25 hid behind Dingy’s SKIRT. They are COWARDS.
True that!
But..."doing your constituents' will"...isn't that HOW you get re-elected?
Agree that gaining control of the Republican Party is the most effective course of action.
However, I would disagree that it was "stolen from us". We conservatives have never owned it -- not since Coolidge, at least.
In my lifetime (born 1940), George H.W. Bush was clearly the third most conservative candidate the party has nominated -- after only Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater.
George H.W. Bush!!! Mr. Big Government "conservative" was #3!!!
Remember, too, how the party had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the Goldwater and Reagan candidacies.
Thus, the job is not to "take it back". It is to assert control over an alien machine that has enjoyed our support without representing our interests.
Probably.
Did Cruz have a better chance winning in TX if he ran as a 3rd party for Senate, or if he won the Rep. nomination? Seems to me the latter, since he was able to knock out 1 out of 2 potential opponents right there.
The party label doesn’t make a difference. We know the difference between a Cruz and a McCain. It just seems easier and more efficient to work within the Republican party by winning their primaries with good candidates.
If the “name” is tarnished, the perception of any brand name can change over time. Either way, we’re going to need to find 25 more Cruzes to run in the Senate. I don’t see the harm in running them as Republican primary opponents first.
Not if your constituents want term limits. :)
Yes and it has to happen now.
I'm sure some if not at least half of them do. Would the 3rd party want to run for all 435 seats, risking that some anti-Obamacare voters lose to the Dem due to vote splitting? If there is enough money to fund a 3rd party, it doesn't seem like it would cost as much to just target the bad Republicans in primaries. And if you can't defeat the Republican in a primary, how could you defeat both him and a Dem in the general? And if the Republican party doesn't give your candidate enough funds in the general, just send him from money from the outside Tea Party coalition. The idea that a 3rd party gets formed and sweeps the next election seems more far-fetched than successfully repeating the formula of primarying out RINOs that's had some success so far, including Cruz's election.
At least half the independents, and maybe as much as 1/3 of the Democrats, loathe the GOP and would never vote for a "Republican". Where I live, the GOP is about country clubs and looking down on guys who get their hands dirty. The new party has to lose the clubbers. There are a lot of voters to gain.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.