The GOP civil war shows few signs of abating, even though Republicans now control both houses of Congress. The issue that the rebels, who love holding everything up, have now, is campaign contributions – there aren’t any. According to a story on ABC News, at least some of them believe that the lack of money flowing in from political action committees is retaliation for things like refusing to vote for John Boehner to keep his job as House Speaker.
These rebels, a.k.a. the Tea Party, have long been upset with establishment Republicans, because they feel those Republicans pander just to get votes, instead of standing for true conservative principles. These are the same morons that make compromise with Democrats impossible, despite the fact that compromise is a crucial part of governing.
Boehner removed some of these rebel conservatives from key positions on House Budget and Financial Services committees at the end of 2012. According to CBS News’ story at the time, he said that it was a difficult move, and that he hoped they would never have to do it again.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) said that Boehner told them it had nothing to do with conservative ideology so much as it had to do with their voting patterns. Many Tea Party conservatives decried the move, saying things about how it was clear that the GOP faction that was committed to anything other than ideological purity was in charge.
It’s not actually clear whether Boehner removed these guys from their committee positions because they were rebels, or because their voting records were problematic. But the ABC News story says that these conservatives believe they were specifically targeted.
They also complain about an ad that ran back in March saying that they were willing to risk the security of the country during the Homeland Security budget showdown in February. What they don’t understand (because they can’t see outside their bubbles) is that they’re the ones who have screwed with our credit rating and our national security for the purpose of making a political point.
And now they’re whining that Republican leadership is throttling their donations.
The GOP’s leadership, for its part, is saying that they aren’t doing anything of the sort. ABC News has a rather good point from Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) on this very issue:
If [the PACs] agree with what the speaker is trying to accomplish and you don’t support the speaker, why should they support you?
Many business groups began pulling away from the Tea Party in 2013, because of their role in the government shutdown and debt default scandal. The Tea Party’s conservatives need to think really hard on this, but it’s not likely they will.
Long story short, they’ve brought this on themselves. Of course, they see conspiracies everywhere, and they believe this is a conspiracy. Whether they might actually be right in this case remains to be seen, however. The bottom line is, the GOP, which controls all of Congress, needs to learn how to govern. The Tea Party conservatives who are whining about a lack of donations are doing a fabulous job of making that impossible.
Featured image by Donkey Hotey. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Flickr. Image altered by Rika Christensen/Liberalistics
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