Posted on 01/14/2016 4:40:21 PM PST by cotton1706
Congressional Republicans gathered to think big thoughts. But the presidential primary keeps interrupting.
BALTIMORE - House and Senate Republicans arrived here for their annual retreat to think big thoughts about the year ahead: How to use their majorities to advance a conservative agenda and win over voters at the polls.
But the increasingly bizarre presidential contest keeps butting in.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) threatened to force votes on Donald Trump's policies. Every time a Republican leader comes out to talk to reporters, they're asked about a brokered convention, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz - and how any of those things might hurt their party's electoral prospects.
On top of that, they're meeting smack in the middle of Thursday's GOP presidential debate, stealing any traction that House Speaker Paul Ryan's big ideas or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's pledges of imposing "regular order" might have gotten.
The GOP mantra is this: Keep working, heads down, and wait for the race to shake out. Then in the meantime, develop a policy portfolio for a nominee or their own candidates to run on. But for congressional leaders looking for daylight from the rowdy presidential primary, it's going to be a long few months.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Gee.. Politico trashing Republicans. How refreshing...not.
They needn’t bother. I won’t be voting for any GOPe shill.
I don’t know why they think anybody would get excited at this point. The polls should tell them they are no longer liked.
How to use their majorities to advance a conservative agenda
LOL - a conservative agenda
Yes, like “SINCE WHEN “/WHAT conservative Agenda?
You know only the Republicans would be stupid enough to HOPE for a “brokered” convention with the guy who wrote “The Art of the Deal”
It’s funny watching these dishonest, self-serving politicians (the Democrats are worse than the Republicans) trying to explain Trump, their mediocre minds clouded by mendacity and shackled by groupthink.
Excellent point!
I don’t Cruz would feel like doing them any favors either.
I’ve been war-gaming the Democrats’ options if Hillary is indicted, and if anybody is going to have a brokered convention, it’s the Democrats. Sanders versus Gore, Kerry, Biden and Lieawatha.
Hey Sen. Hoeven - scorecard F 28% Conservative Review -
Stick that dovetail thing up your a**
How to use their majorities to advance a conservative agenda and win over voters at the polls.
*********************************************
The problem is that what wins over voters is deporting illegal aliens and stopping more from coming.
They’ve already sold their souls to The Cheap Labor Express.
“How to use their majorities to advance a conservative agenda and win over voters at the polls.”
Oh goddy! Fiction!
So, the GOPe is going to hand Trump or Cruz a policy portfolio? I would like to see that.
Just wow!
Then in the meantime, develop a policy portfolio for a nominee or their own candidates to run on.
Yeah, Trump or Cruz are going to run on the platform of Paul Ryan's big ideas.
You really should develop that as a vanity post. It is a truly brilliant point, and I had not thought of it. I bet a lot of other Freepers have not either.
Why start now?
I could care less about any of the ‘spineless sissies’ in the House or Senate...
The only one candidate that is running that is ‘saying it like it is’ is Trump...therefore what the rest of the ‘governors’ or ‘politicians’ are saying aren’t worth a hill of beans...
GO.TRUMP.GO.ALL.THE.WAY.TO.THE.OVAL.OFFICE!!!
Win over voters? Really? Congress has an approval rating lower than that of drug dealers and pimps. The only way I can see them winning over the voters is if they got rid of themselves.
“They’re pursuing ambitious plans on CRIMINAL JUSTICE, health care, taxes and foreign policy, though those plans may not actually see votes.”
For those not following closely, CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM, in this context means backing off the policies that actually landed FELONS in jail, and going back to the old ways that gave us our HUGE CRIME WAVE of the 1980s and 1990s.
The Republican leaders, led by the now-deposed Cantor (thank God!), were trying to PANDER to black leaders and end mandatory sentencing, for example, as that tended to force judges to actually PUT FELONS IN JAIL, rather than out on the street, so as to rape more women. This resulted in ‘disproportionate outcomes’ in jail population.
This is the kind of TOTAL GARBAGE that the GOPe is plotting when they think we’re not looking.
By the way, Rand Paul is a big supporter of this too.
Gee.. Politico trashing Republicans. How refreshing...not.
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