Frustrated Republicans Vent after Senate Vote

National Review Online ^ | September 27, 2013 5:32 PM | Betsy Woodruff

[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.”

[MasterGunner01]

If you rancid RINOs had any honor, you’d commit Seppuku (ritual suicide, aka “hara kiri”). But RINOs are devoid of honor and integrity. The voters must deprive them of their political jobs. Let the RINO hunt begin! This is a target rich environment.

[JediJones]

Beating the Democrats is another story entirely. We’re talking about primarying out Republicans in areas where they’ve already been elected, so the party name isn’t unelectable there. There will still be lots of areas where Democrats hold power. And changing the hearts and minds of the people in those areas is a tougher task. The candidate can certainly explain how he’s different from the stereotypical Republican and that he won’t vote with the party line, only with what his beliefs are.

[VideoDoctor]

Your post #20 is RIGHT ON accurate,

Cruz accomplished an immense amount of behalf of Conservatives.

[dps.inspect]

My belief is that creating a third party or the threat of a third party would have some impact on the direction of the Republican party, and of course I would vote for a Tea Party backed Republican candidate. But I am not giving the R Party anything more, they’ve squandered my trust, hope and effort.