Posted on 07/26/2015 4:01:24 PM PDT by markomalley
The GOP "Old Guard" in the Senate Sunday pushed back against outspoken conservative critics, avoiding direct attacks on Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, but making it clear his recent renegade actions are unwelcome in the upper chamber.
Without saying a word, the Republican conference sent a powerful message to Cruz and other conservatives like Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, by not backing their efforts to add amendments to a "must-pass" highway spending bill.
"Deliberation and reasoned judgment require an atmosphere of restraint, an atmosphere of thoughtful disagreement," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who serves as the Senate pro tempore and is the longest-serving GOP lawmaker, said in a floor speech Sunday. "Deliberation without decorum is not deliberation at all. It is bickering. And bickering, Mr. President, is beneath this body."
Hatch delivered much of the unofficial censure Sunday, criticizing Cruz for his Senate floor speech Friday where he accused Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of 'flat-out' lying about the highway bill.
Hatch issued a general reminder to all lawmakers that it is against the rules to accuse another senator of "unworthy" conduct, before speaking at length about what he described as a breakdown of Senate floor decorum in recent months, led by Senate newcomers running for president or otherwise looking to advance themselves politically.
"In recent times the Senate floor has too often become a forum for partisan messaging and ideological grandstanding rather than a setting for serious debate," Hatch said. "It has been misused as a tool to advance personal ambitions, a venue to promote political campaigns, and even a vehicle to enhance fundraising efforts, all at the expense of the proper functioning of this body."
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, joined in on the push-back against Cruz, urging fellow Republicans to withhold support for a planned motion by Cruz aimed at forcing a vote on one of his amendments.
Cruz wanted the Senate to take up a provision that would require Iran to recognize Israel as a state and to release four Americans now jailed in the Islamic republic. But senior Republicans urged fellow lawmakers to reject Cruz's motion because it could set off a flood of additional amendments.
"There would be chaos," Cornyn said, adding that a vote in favor of the Cruz motion, "would be a terrible mistake."
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wanted to offer a motion that would force the Senate to vote on an amendment to defund federal dollars from Planned Parenthood, where officials were recently shown on video discussing the price of fetal body parts.
But no lawmaker would second the Cruz or Lee motions to move their amendments, stopping them in their tracks.
The battle isn't over, however. Lee will likely make a motion tomorrow to try to win a vote on an amendment to repeal Obamacare with just 51 votes. A similar amendment was defeated today because it required 60 votes for passage.
Like today's amendments, however, Lee will first require the support of other senators to win a vote on the issue, which he was unable to obtain on Sunday.
"Republicans will have the opportunity resurrect that Obamacare amendment later on in the process, and put it back before the Senate in a manner that only requires a simple-majority vote," Lee said in a statement.
Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of bringing back to life the now-expired Export-Import Bank. An amendment to revive the bank, which saw its authorization come to an end in June thanks in part to staunch opposition from conservative lawmakers.
The Senate has now extended a potential lifeline to the bank via legislation that would fund federal road and bridge projects for the next six years.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., kept a promise made to Democrats earlier this year that in exchange for their support on an important trade deal, he would allow a vote on a measure to extend the bank.
I believe that you are right in the states. There is where we make a difference. It’s deathly slow and it’s a challenge, but the states are our last bastion.
I mean, even now in Congress, Bratt and our newly elected are all relegated to the underside of the thumb and the agenda of the “Old Guard” working in tandem with the Senate, against us and him now.
They pushed back against US!!
Agree! Today’s GOP needs to be destroyed! They have very little in common with the GOP of past. They are more like, what the Democrat Party was a decade ago. Just as the Democrats have moved far left and lost the Southern Democrats, the GOP has moved so far left that they are winning those Southern Democrats while losing their base and most of the middle.
We really need another Party - please! The two party system is broken!
Welcome to the machine.
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