The most under-covered story of the month
by digby
… is the fury at Paul Ryan from the right wing. It’s pretty much all they can talk about. This was one of the many angry emails sent around in the last few days:
The leading figures of the Washington Cartel, President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and the Senate’s Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took a victory lap after the passage of the Omnibus spending bill this past Friday.
In a press release, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell touted provisions tucked into the bill that he says will benefit Kentucky – including $200 million for cleanup at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, $10 million for broadband development in Central Appalachia, and the permanent extension of tax credits for Kentucky Paul Ryanbusinesses and farmers. But as WKUY’s Josh James reported, absent from the bill were any measures restricting the Syrian refugee program or defunding Planned Parenthood.
Speaker Ryan, whose scruffy beard now makes him look more like a frat boy after a kegger than the third ranking constitutional officer of the United States, tweeted “Lots of good results in my first 7 weeks as speaker…”, but the Speaker failed to mention exactly what those “good results” might be, largely because, other than increased spending and pork, Republicans could identify few “good results” in Ryan’s tenure or the Omnibus that marked the conclusion of the First Session of the 114th Congress.
But conservatives had plenty to say about the first seven weeks of Ryan’s tenure – and none of it was good.
In our article “Paul Ryan = John Boehner” we told you about the broad opposition to the Omnibus expressed by conservative leaders and organizations. In his great article “Paul Ryan’s 11 Christmas Gifts to Obama” our friend Daniel Horowitz of Conservative Review cited 11 items that in a rational world would have caused even the most liberal Republicans to vote “NO” on the bill.
And a few principled Republican on Capitol Hill did vote “NO.”
In the House our friends Jim Bridentstine (OK-1), Louie Gohmert (TX-1), Mo Brooks (AL-5), Curt Clawson (FL-19) and Steve King (IA-4) all voted “NO.”
“It was over a trillion dollars, it was all lumped together, 2,242 pages, nobody read it, so frankly my biggest complaint is that I have no idea what kind of things they stuck in that bill in the middle of the night,” Senator Paul, R-Ky., said.
Senator Ted Cruz said, he was not just “NO,” but Hell No: “Typically in the Senate you have two votes, you can vote either yes or no. On this particular matter, my vote I intend to be hell no,” Senator Cruz told “The John Fredericks Show.” “This is what’s wrong with the Washington Cartel.”
“Republican leadership has proven to be the most Democratic leaders we have ever seen,” Cruz observed on Thursday. “[This] does not honor the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.”
And Senator Marco Rubio, well he skipped the vote.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York summarized the death of democratic government this way in his victory lap celebrating his defeat of America’s conservative majority:
“Well if you would’ve told me this year that we’d be standing here celebrating the passage of an omnibus bill, with no poison pill riders, at higher levels above sequesters than even the president requested, I wouldn’t have believed it, but here we are.
This bill is a great victory for the principles Democrats stand for.
The results of this bill and this vote makes us wonder if any of the so-called conservatives who are members of House Freedom Caucus are regretting their support for Paul Ryan and their contemptible abandonment of Daniel Webster’s bid for the Speaker’s gavel now that they’ve seen conservatives outside Congress were right in urging them stand fast against Ryan.
It is time the conservative voters outside the Beltway took a hard look at their member of Congress – if your Representative or Senator engages in “show votes” in which they vote for the Rule to bring a bill to the Floor and then vote “NO” on the bill it is time to take a long hard look at their overall record.
Any Republican member of Congress who has an established pattern of engaging in “show votes” deserves a primary challenge.
Establishment Republicans now facing serious primary challenges, such as incumbent establishment Republican Martha Roby in Alabama-2, who is being challenged by Becky Gerritson, incumbent Renee Ellmers in NC-2, who is being challenged by Frank Roche and Jim Duncan, and incumbent Pete Sessions in TX-32, who is being challenged by Russell Ramsland are now trying desperately to run away from the Syrian refugee jihadi threat because they repeatedly voted to fund it, they are trying to run away from their complicity in the murder of millions because they continue to fund Planned Parenthood, as they did once again in the Omnibus, and they are trying to run away from their complicity in the bankrupting of America because, even though tax collections are at record levels, they continue to pass spending bills with huge deficits, like the Omnibus.
There’s only one way to fix this problem and restore constitutional liberty to America, and in announcing her “White Flag Congress” town hall meeting series Eagle Forum Founder Phyllis Schlafly said it better than we can:
At this pivotal moment in U.S. history, when our leaders ought to be standing stronger and fighting harder than ever for us – they’ve chosen to wave a white flag in the face of government overreach and overspending. The only thing that gets their attention is a primary! Every one of them is guilty until proven innocent! Primary Them!
The mainstream media, for the most part, isn’t paying attention because of the holidays and the Trump and Cruz show, but it’s big. The talk radio haters are apoplectic.
It’s hard to say where this all ends up but it’s safe to assume they are not going to forgive and forget. Ryan got over in this flurry at the end of the year when Boehner cleared the decks for him. But unless this election defangs the Tea Party wing in a very substantial way, it’s unlikely he’ll ever be able to do it again.
Happy Hollandaise everyone.
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