They ain’t dead yet
by digby
This is from Breitbart today:
Rep. Steve King is holding a six-hour press conference on immigration on the east lawn of the Capitol. Despite the early start on a day in the middle of the week, a couple hundred activists attended the beginning of the event. It is a sign of growing anxiety in the grass-roots over the Senate amnesty legislation.
“Border security, Rule of Law Members of Congress are unlikely to get a full debate inside the halls of Congress,” King said. “So we are taking the debate outside it’s halls.”
Thousands of Americans will also arrive in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday for a mass “Audit the IRS” rally to protest the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups. The Tea Party Patriots, a group targeted by the IRS, organized the rally.
Tea Partiers and conservatives who were targeted will speak at the rally along with prominent conservative legislators like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon and Breitbart’s Sonnie Johnson will also speak at the rally.
Conservative talk-radio host Glenn Beck will speak at both events.
It’s hard to know if they have enough clout to spook Boehner into truly evoking the Hastert Rule, therefore preventing the bill from coming to a vote. (He says he will, but unless he has reason to believe he’ll lose his chairmanship if he doesn’t he might do it anyway if his caucus wants this bill to pass — with Democratic votes.) I would guess this rally is an attempt to gin up enough popular opposition to make the caucus think twice about it.
On the other hand, he may just be doing what his caucus wants him to do:
Republican lawmakers have a message for those who want the party to soften its emphasis on social conservatism in hopes of reaching a wider national audience: Not so fast.
House Republicans flexed their cultural and conservative muscles Tuesday, passing the most restrictive abortion measure in years. They also advanced legislation to crack down on immigrants living illegally in the country, even as senators pursue a plan that would offer those same millions a shot at citizenship.
The actions reflect a roiling debate among Republicans over why they lost two elections to President Barack Obama, and how best to rebuild a winning formula.
Many Republicans in Congress and elsewhere think the party’s establishment erred in concluding the GOP must embrace “comprehensive immigration reform” to attract Hispanic voters. And they dismiss the notion that Republicans should soft-pedal their opposition to abortion, a subject on which they say public opinion is moving their way.
“There’s been a misleading thought as to what happened after the last election cycle,” said Rep. John Fleming, R-La.
“Most Americans do not support amnesty, especially without securing the borders,” he said, regarding the idea of citizenship for those here illegally. As for abortion, Fleming said, there’s growing public concern about second-trimester abortions, “so we’re actually gaining ground.”
They think they’re winning. And in some senses they are. The red states are pushing hardcore right wing legislation and rules. The Supreme Court’s conservative wing is fully dominant. They have a House majority that is far to the right of anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes — and they are willing to use it to ruthlessly move the goalposts in their direction and thwart any progress that the national majority votes for.
I have long said that they are the most effective opposition party in the world and now that they are gerrymandered into long term power in the House, we may see it demonstrated in living color for some time yet. They like being the opposition — they can fight freely and without constraint. And fighting is their lifeblood.
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