GOP civil war explodes anew: Raging tension amid bitter fight to lead House

[DonViejo]

Cantor's fall gives Kevin McCarthy a shot at power. But the Tea Party has an opening -- and it's not passing it up

SIMON MALOY

The conventional wisdom swirling around D.C. is that next week, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will be elected House majority leader. Like any good Machiavellian, McCarthy reacted to the news of incumbent majority leader Eric Cantor’s primary defeat on Tuesday by immediately moving to consolidate his own support within the Republican caucus and freeze out his potential rivals. One of those rivals, Jeb Hensarling of Texas, announced yesterday that he would not be seeking the position. That left the lone figure of Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, to stand in McCarthy’s way, but he also stood down late Thursday night.

For an average person, none of this really matters. But for conservative activists, it really matters. They succeeded in taking out Cantor, striking a blow at the leadership they felt was abandoning their conservative principles. And after scoring that huge victory, the establishment is throwing it right back in their faces.

McCarthy, the current majority whip, is no more loved by the hard right than Cantor is. As a member of the leadership, he voted for many of the same pieces of legislation that got Cantor in trouble with the conservative base. He’s a stronger advocate for immigration reform than Cantor ever was. He’s shown a willingness to work to “fix” the Affordable Care Act rather than just agitate for its full repeal. That’s more than enough to earn himself the RINO stamp, and the right is not happy at his likely ascendance.

Erick Erickson reacted by calling the GOP “the stupid party” and attacked House Republicans for elevating McCarthy, who is “not a friend of conservatives.” Erickson laid out an indictment of McCarthy that was so thorough that it attacked McCarthy for raising the debt ceiling twice in three sentences.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/06/13/gop_civil_war_explodes_anew_raging_tension_amid_bitter_fight_to_lead_house/

[gordianot]

1. Conservatives=Soulless creatures that know only hate

The hate is so strong on the dark side they hate each other.

[yellowcanine]

2. Play nice, boys.

[AlinPA]

3. "..the establishment.." That's bullshit. The teabaggers are now in control of the GOP and there is

no difference between what people call teabggers and what they call republicans.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Tea Party = extreme hard right flank of the GOP

[Reter]

6. Disagree

Cantor, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell are all part of the establishment of the Republican Party. While they may agree on social issues like abortion, gay rights, and guns, they are pretty far apart from the tea baggers on some big issues. They all supported that budget deal, the NDAA, Syrian intervention, and Patriot Act extensions, all of which the tea party considers to be poison.

[AlinPA]

8. Put a bag over their heads, put them in front of a microphone and listen to what comes out of the

mouth hole and you can't the difference between Boehner and any one of the crazies. The government shutdown was proof of that.

[Reter]

5. Tom McClintock should run for it

He's a hard-right paleo-con (Pat Buchanan type, anti-war, anti-Patriot Act, anti-immigration) that's adored by the Tea Baggers. Justin Amash is popular with them too, but he's too young and a bit too libertarian.

[Sunlei]

7. Let the GOP republican hamsters eat their own young. Sometimes its good to cull the herd.