Ace of Spades is a great blogger. I’m a fan. Although perhaps he hasn’t been as cynical about our two-party system, all this time, as I’ve been. He may be changing his mind. See his recent piece, titled Jay Cost: The Republican Party Is Not Your Friend. Ace begins:

I have long argued against a third-party split and the Nightmare Option of simply conceding the country to the liberals for 20 disastrous years.

I am no longer confident in such arguments.

At some point — and that point is coming soon and hard — the Republican Party must be treated as what it is, a second enemy party dominated by corporate liberalism. [sic; meaning leftism]

He gives his reasons, which you can go read. I’m not sure I agree with Ace’s conclusion:

I am not only ready, but eager to ditch the corporate class — and, frankly, the wealthiest 1% generally, which largely supports liberal policies — and begin taking a very, very agnostic view on whether or not their taxes should be raised until it hurts.

And then, once it does hurt, and they are begging relief, we can…insist that corporate interests serve the conservative agenda, rather than, as it has been forever, that the conservative agenda be made a slave to corporate interests.

First, I don’t think the libertarian-conservative movement can control the situation so finely as that, anytime soon. Ace may just be fantasizing.

Second, I’m all in favor of rejecting corporate leftism (let’s have no bailouts!); but we must always be ready to lower taxes, on moral principle. High taxation is theft; it just happens to be legal theft (since the government is doing it). It’s wrong. Doing the right thing should be a person’s first response in life, not a bargaining chip. Thus, lowering government spending and taxes should be our basic position; even automatic.

Your thoughts?

Not because you’re gay; don’t be a frickin’ drama queen. No, Republicans don’t give a damn about you if you’re in the middle class, if you’re in the working class, or if you care about fiscally responsible Government.

John Boehner and the GOP leadership will not go to the wall to protect your jobs and income from illegal immigrant labor; they claim they don’t want to risk “shutting down the Government.” But they will totally go to the wall, and risk shutting down the Government, to protect corporate welfare for big bankers.

The provision would no longer require that big banks separate trades in financial derivatives from traditional bank accounts, which are backed by the government through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The derivatives played a key role in the financial collapse.

The Provision is strongly opposed by extreme-left Democrats, led by Democrat Elizabeth Warren. But, just because Democrats hate it doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea for taxpayers to be backing up the risky investments of multibillion dollar megabanks.

(Also, I am open to Jeff slapping me upside the head and telling me I got this wrong.)

It’s just telling whom Republicans will fight for, and whom they won’t.

First off, we here at GayPatriot are in favor of legal immigrants and controlled, legal immigration from other countries. We simply oppose *illegal* immigration because of the importance of border security in the age of terrorism; and because it’s illegal. The people who have done it began their American journey by consciously breaking America’s laws.

As President Obama unilaterally suspended deportations of certain illegal aliens in 2012, and then last week expanded it to millions more, he has made clear what his priorities are not:

• Enforcing the law, as passed by previous Congresses and signed by previous Presidents: Not a priority.
• Defending U.S. borders: Not a priority. (Has Obama seriously tried to improve border security? Of course not.)
• Following the Constitution: Not a priority.
• Saving taxpayer money: Not a priority.
• Being true to his own previous statements and promises: Not a priority. Per link above, “In a Telemundo interview in September 2013, for example, Obama said that if he were to broaden the exception he made in 2012…’then essentially, I would be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally.’”
• Racial and/or human sensitivity: Not a priority. Obama publicly reduced the people affected by his order to their supposed roles as people “who pick our fruit and make our beds.” (Guess he never makes his own bed, or cleans his own home? I do.)

Any of the first three points above – and certainly, all of the first three together – are violations of the President’s oath of office and grounds for impeachment. But let’s face it: as V has suggested, impeachment will never happen.

I blame the media because this is what you get, when a biased media covers for an egotistical President relentlessly: Hubris. Lawlessness. Government that is willfully, impeachably unconstitutional. With no accountability.

But speaking of the media, I must give some credit where it’s due. In the past, I’ve often noted that Jay Carney was Obama’s paid liar, and he probably still is, on some level. But even he admits that Obama is “literally” doing what he promised not to do. Also, credit the Washington Post for noticing how Obama’s pretense of innocence happens to be a lie.

So, what do you think Congressional Republicans will do with the illegal-immigration issue, from here? Up to now, GOP leaders have been soft on the issue of border security.

They’ve also been eager to be perceived (in the media, etc.) as pro-Latino. But I’m thinking that Obama just took all of that ground away from them: there is no possible way, now, that GOP leaders can ever be perceived as more pro-illegal immigrant or pro-Latino than Obama.

In that sense, Obama just took away any incentive that GOP leaders would have for compromising with him. I think that will blow up in Obama’s face. And I think he has just proven to the voters that Democrats truly don’t give a hoot about border security.(*)

NB: The first version of this post misquoted Obama slightly; the quote has been corrected.
(*) Again, because of its glaring absence from the Democrats’ real set of concerns.

The left — having the psyche of insecure teenage girls — have to constantly reassure each other that they’re the smartest, the prettiest, the youngest, and the coolest.

So, they are very much invested in the narrative that Republicans are all old, dumb, white (uncool) men.

• Slate: “Revenge of the White Male Voter“
• MSDNC: Republicans are old white people who are going to die one day.
• Southern Political Report: The GOP’s Old Man Problem
• McClatchy News Service: GOP revival: ‘The triumph of old white guys’
• Politico: GOP soul-searching: ‘Too old, too white, too male‘

In fairness, though, the GOP would be a lot better off without septuagenarians like Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Pat Roberts, and the barely animated corpse of That Cochran hobbling around the Senate.

It always feels good to see sanity prevail in an election, yes! And now for some honesty about what isn’t so good, in this election.

Unlike the Reagan wins of the 1980s, or the GOP’s 1994 “Contract with America” win, the 2014 GOP (as a national whole) neither provided nor sold to the voters a pro-freedom, government-cutting vision. The GOP skillfully profited from voter dissatisfaction with President Obama; and little more.

Racial guilt aside, the voters originally bought into Obama because he promised the Impossible Dream: a government which would be Big, but still somehow friendly and American (never mind that oppression is inherent to all Big Governments), and which would look out for them (never mind that socialism serves the elites, undermines the economy for ordinary people, and mathematically cannot provide benefits of much value to most people).

In this election six years later, the voters have repudiated Obama because he failed to deliver on the dream. He promised smooth, cool delivery of the dream. Instead, he gave a string of incompetent, messy disasters that even a corrupt media could not hide: such as the Gulf oil spill (BP’s actions had been approved by Obama regulators), Obamacare (with its expensive and oppressive mandates), Libya war, Benghazi, Syria war, ISIS, Ebola, and a moribund economy where the jobs are part-time, the taxes are higher, the U.S. national debt is doubled and only things that go up are the financial markets and the cost of living. The voters feel “lied to” and for that, they have now punished Obama.

In other words, the voters have not yet learned that the dream itself is impossible. The voters still want Friendly Fascism: a Big Government that somehow (1) works (or, in the famous saying, “makes the trains run on time”); while it (2) maintains a veneer of traditional American freedoms. It is impossible. But voters are hoping now that the GOP can help to correct Obama’s excesses and make the dream work.

The GOP, in this election in 2014, has done little to educate the voters on the dream’s utter impossibility – and thus, little to move America forward.

This is the way to respond to a fundraising letter from the Republican Nebbish Clique (RNC).

Since 2008, I have seen nothing that would make me support the Republican National Party, and much that disgusts me about you. People actively opposed to limiting government have leadership positions; those actively attempting to limit government are removed from leadership positions. When you had several chances to stop Obamacare cold, you have continually refused to take them. And don’t give me “1/2 of 1/3 of government.” The simple expedient of withholding unanimous consent during the “debate” over Obamacare would have ended it- no one was going to sit while 1800 pages were read so that a bunch of old men and women could hear them.

…

Any party of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and John Cornyn is not a party with which I identify. Perhaps you can hit me up again when you have listened to the likes of Mike Lee, Pete Sessions, and Ted Cruz. Maybe I’ll be more willing to listen when you grow a spine, or testicles, or both. Until then, no, not one red cent.

You wouldn’t know it to read the histrionic protests of low-information voters, but Republicans have largely abandoned Social Conservatism in accordance with the advice given to them by the mainstream media and their well-paid political consultants. Republicans have paid lip-service to Right-to-Life, but done very little, at the national level, to advance a Pro-Life Agenda. (The Democrats, in contrast, have been aggressively advancing pro-abortion legislation, including a new effort to nullify all state-level abortion restrictions.)  And despite a series of scandals, Planned Parenthood still receives a generous taxpayer subsidy. The battle to save traditional marriage is lost.

And despite the national  GOP’s abandonment of Social Conservatism, the promised windfall of moderate voters who supposedly were just itching to vote Republican so long as they backed off on abortion, Teh Gheys, and the “Oogah-Boogah” Christianity stuff   has not materialized.  The social conservative wedge of the Republican base is demoralized, and perhaps that’s why so many stayed home in 2012.

But without social values, what does the Republican Party have to offer? It’s hard to answer ‘Fiscal Responsibility’ when the GOP leadership wrote President Obama a blank check to raise the debt ceiling and undid all of the domestic spending cuts in the sequester.  There is no real pushback on Obama’s Big Gigantic Government  Agenda. The House could defund Obama’s job-killing EPA regulations, but they don’t. They could defund his project to force an Affirmative Action housing plan on American neighborhoods, but they don’t. On Amnesty and Illegal Immigration, they largely embrace the same “Amnesty First/Security Later” Big Lie that Obama and the Democrats do.

Since abandoning Social Conservatism (in deed if not in word), the Republican Party has lost a key part of its identity.  One writer thinks the GOP should re-invent itself along populist, anti-corporatist lines. Given that Republicans are joined at the hip with Big Business interests represented by the US Chamber of Commerce, such a reinvention seems unlikely.

Having abandoned Pro-Family, Social Conservative values, the Republican Party has no clear theme, no clear vision of what it is or what it stands for. The Republicans have a slogan, “Growth and Opportunity” that’s as vapid and meaningless as “Hope and Change,” since they have no real policies or plan to advance even that vague agenda.

It will never happen in this debased Idiocracy of a country, but a man can always dream of a better world. [HT: Director Blue]

(more…)

They’re still claiming that any opposition to leftism could only be motivated by racism. Here, Rep. Steve Israel (D) says it back-hand style:

Candy: Do you think your Republican colleagues are racist?

Israel: Not all of them, no. Of course not. But to a significant extent, the Republican base does have elements that are animated by racism.

They’re still demanding that their failures be subsidized and bailed out. Here, a “green” solar company sues the government for only having dished it $250 million of taxpayer money, instead of millions more.

They’re still using highly questionable statistics to demagogue the issue of equal pay for men and women.

They’re still fighting their ‘war’ on Fox News, and failing – sometimes with hilarious results. The video shows Greta van Susteren cornering an aggressive Democrat into admitting that he lied about his resume.

They’re still racially divisive with amazing double standards. Here, a Democrat belittles her African-American GOP colleague for being only “half” black. Which, remember, happens to be what President Obama is.

They still have amazing double standards on the issues of Islam, free speech and women’s rights. Last week, leftists hit a triple (the wrong positions on all three) when Brandeis snubbed Ayaan Hirsi Ali after considering her for an honorary degree.

They’re still screeching “McCarthyism!” to deflect attention from their misconduct, as Rep. Elijah Cummings (D) did last week, when questions arose over his own staff’s collusion with the dangerously out-of-control IRS.

UPDATE: At least there’s hope for Wisconsin:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has had a good run lately. He signed a major tax relief package into law, his controversial budget reforms have put the state back in the black…A new poll from Wisconsin Public Radio suggests that voters are appreciative of the governor’s accomplishments. Walker leads Democrat Mary Burke by 16 points in the survey (56/40), with Walker’s approval rating soaring to just shy of 60 percent — an all-time high in the series. (President Obama’s job approval is underwater at 48/50 in the poll). Walker’s lead is fueled by a 19-point advantage among independents…

The “Do Nothing” strategy seems to be bearing fruit.

Republican David Jolly narrowly defeated Democrat Alex Sink on Tuesday in a Tampa-area House race largely seen as a critical test for ObamaCare.

The Democrat, Alex Sink, a former candidate for governor, was heavily favored in the Democrat-leaning 13th CD. The Democrat Party sank millions into her campaign, some of which went to hire complete nitwits to steal David Jolly campaign signs and then brag about it on Twitter. The Democrats also ran a phony libertarian in hopes of siphoning off GOP votes; a strategy that worked very well for them in Virginia. Unless they “find” a few thousand ballots in the trunk of a car (the Franken maneuver), the Democrats will not pick up this seat this time.

So, while this election will not affect that status quo in any way, at least we are spared the obnoxious spectacle of Democrat gloating.

As Jeff has noted, President Obama has no interest in addressing the country’s fiscal problems. (Lefties: “He cut the deficit in half, you wingnuts!” Reality: “$600 Billion deficits are nothing to brag about, even if they used to be $1.2 Trillion.”) But the truth of the matter is the Republicans don’t have a plan to deal with the debt either; and those who have proposed even modest reforms, like Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, are derided as dangerous, radical “whackobirds.”

The Repblicans also aren’t proposing any reforms to deal with IRS abuses. They also don’t have a compelling plan for economic growth; aside from some vague notion of cutting taxes. On Amnesty, they’re as bad as the Democrats. As far as the administration’s abuse of executive power, corruption, and lies go the Republicans whine, but do nothing.  And they won’t even talk about regulatory reform or entitlement reform.

The entire GOP strategy for 2014 is to count on Obamacare remaining unpopular; but in reality, they don’t plan to repeal it anyway.

The question is, can they run on nothing and still win? Do voters hate Obamacare so much that they’ll vote for Republicans who are presenting no alternative vision to the status quo? The Party Leadership is so confident in the “Do-Nothing” strategy that they are actively attacking the party’s conservative base voters.

Amy Otto at Pocketful of Liberty explains some of the less obvious disadvantages to being a Republican (apart from the obvious disadvantage of having 99% of media and academia engaged in Total War against you 24/7/365).

For one thing, Republicans and people inclined to vote for them do not live consumed with politics their leftist rivals are, and less forgiving of… personnel issues.

Registered Republicans often rate character, principle and values above politics. … This often makes a Republican less attuned to doing what needs to be done to win because they’re too busy managing their own lives  to worry about politics.

Republicans kicked Mark Foley to the curb for sending creepy text messages to interns. Democrats re-elected Gerry Studds 9 times after he molested an undererage intern. Sometimes, having standards is a big political disadvantage.

For another, the RNC is always asking for money, but never giving you anything in return.

Just so we have this straight: You want my money so some person in Congress can draw a salary at a minimum of $179,000 /yr for life (also my money) and in return they might fight for a smaller increase in the amount of spending (again, my money).

Sounds like a smart investment! Here’s a check!

The Democrats have a slick value proposition, “Vote for us and we’ll take money away from other people and spend it on you,” that is easy to understand and, for a significant portion of the electorate, impossible to resist. The Republican alternative value proposition is, “We’ll do the same thing, just not as much,” it doesn’t really inspire anybody. Then, the GOP Establishment calls you a “purist nutjob” for actually expecting them to fight for the principles they ran on.

There’s four or five other things in there: The Republican belief in fair play that’s a huge electoral disadvantage when Democrat machines are turning out 120% of registered voters and finding hundreds of votes for Al Franken in the trunk of a car. The way Republicans get blamed for Democrat failures. (e.g. Even though Obamacare was passed without a single Republican vote, it’s still Republicans’ fault it doesn’t work). It’s worth a read.

Christy Waters at the Conservative Report Online makes a compelling case that Karl Rove is doing more to advance the progressive agenda than the entire evening line-up at MSDNC.

• Under George W. Bush, undertook a massive expansion of the regulatory and welfare state in the name of “Compassionate Conservatism.”
• Used Republican Party resources to support Arlen Specter, Lincoln Chaffee, and Charlie Crist against more conservative primary challengers; all three of those gents left the party, two becoming Democrats.
• Advised Republicans to support another unpopular foreign war (Syria).
• Supports an Amnesty plan that will drive down the wages of American workers and flood elections with 10-20 million new Democrat voters.
• Is actively seeking to drive a third to a half of the Republican base (Tea Party conservatives) out of the party.

If Karl Rove and the Republican Establishment have their way, the party will be diminished to what it was in the pre-Reagan Era: a permanent minority of ineffectual moderates content with whatever crumbs the Democrats toss them.

They are perfectly fine with this, as long as the crumbs are big enough.

Granted, this is only a burning question to the “Whackobird” wing of the electorate that really cares about controlling unsustainable Government spending and getting the Government out of where it has no business being.

Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator makes the case that the Anti-Tea Party, Establishment wing of the GOP (e.g. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Boehner, Karl Rove, Chris Christie) are just pale blue Marxists who don’t really care about all that freedom, liberty, and free enterprise stuff.

The Republican Party can control every last seat in Congress after 2014 and the White House in 2016 — and it will not make a lick of difference. Because just as occurred when Rove was a man with clout in the White House and John Boehner was on an earlier ladder of the GOP House leadership passing No Child Left Behind with Teddy Kennedy — the Washington GOP Establishment will do everything they can to fight efforts to limit the size and growth of the federal government.

You have to read the whole thing to get to his conclusion, but he makes a compelling argument: What’s the point in electing Republicans if all we can get is a slightly watered-down Democrat Agenda? Did Republicans reduce Government *at all* when Bush was President and they held both Houses of Congress? Did even one Department’s budget get cut?

It feels as though the USA, with our monstrous debt and out-of-control Government is the Titanic, and a few alert passengers and crewmen have spotted the iceberg ahead. But the Captain and his officers insist that changing course is “too radical,” and “too extreme.” The Democrat officers are oblivious to the iceberg and want to pour more coal into the boilers. The Republicans officers are aware that some of the crew are concerned about the iceberg, but are only willing to negotiate with the Democrat officers for a 2% reduction in the amount of additional coal shoveled into the because that’s “realistic.”

This is why I have a “Let.It.Burn” bumper-sticker in the rear window of my car.

So, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner (and Paul Ryan) have declared War on the Tea Party because they say that people concerned about Big Government represent a crazy, ‘whackobird’ fringe and supporting fiscal restraint and limited Government will lead to electoral oblivion because Big Government is, like, uber-popular (the New York Times says so and Rachel Maddow agrees) and what Americans really want is $63Billion in new spending, a replacement for Obamacare that still puts the Government in charge of health care, more NSA surveillance, and Amnesty.

According to Gallup, however, the ‘Whackobird’ fringe is now 72% of the population. i.e. 72% of Americans say Big Government is the biggest threat the USA faces.

That’s a big fringe.

And yet John Boehner, after his victory in blowing up the Sequester, has now turned his sights on Amnesty. Because that’s what Big Business wants. By the way, Big Business, who the Republicans are jumping into bed with, was ranked as the Biggest Threat by 21% of Americans. The GOP establishment is going against 93% of the public.

The Stupid Party, indeed.

After months of deranged demonization from the left, a Rasmussen poll finds Ted Cruz to be, after the Pope and SCOAMF McChoomwagon, the third most powerful political figure on the planet.

No wonder John McCain and John Boehner-McCain hate him so much. (Me, I’m just trying to figure out why supporting the Constitution and fiscal responsibility makes you a Right Wing Nut Job.)

On a related note, angry New York DIABLO Peter King has launched a Political Action Committee explicit aimed at destroying Ted Cruz and other fiscally responsible, Constitutionalist Republicans.

And Mitch McConnell is telling lobbyists they better back moderate, establishment Republicans if they want to keep that sweet, sweet Federal pork coming.

Paul Ryan proudly announced the Congressional Republicans’ latest surrender yesterday; they’ve reached a budget compromise with Senate Democrats that raises taxes and eliminates most of the sequester cuts. But he says its OK to eliminate the cuts they agreed to two years ago because ten years from now they will make even bigger cuts… pinky swear.

So, basically, the Republican Party has abandoned all but the pretense of fiscal responsibility. But don’t worry, they’ll make up for it by passing Amnesty next year.

Update: The New Republic — which, for those of you in Rio Linda is a magazine/website popular among old white liberals — is calling the budget deal a big fat massive win for the Dark Side.

You get kind of tired of hearing Establishment Republicans whine that those of us who support the Tea Party over the Establishment are putting purity before pragmatism. Not at all. We just don’t trust the Establishment GOP because, time and time again, they’ve shown that they define pragmatism as stabbing the base in the back and helping the Democrat Left advance its agenda.

Marco Rubio won his senate seat promising to oppose Amnesty, and by his admission, a “path to citizenship” for illegal immigrants was Amnesty. Once in office, Rubio quickly betrayed his voters and signed onto the Gang of 8 Immigration Bill, that contained not only a path to citizenship, but gives the President almost unlimited authority to waive any of the bill’s requirements. (As if Obama would never do anything like that.) Pat Toomey also betrayed conservative who supported him by signing onto gun control. It’s Republican Standard Operating Procedure: Get Elected as a Conservative, Betray the Base, then lie about it . Meanwhile, someone like Ted Cruz actually does what he promised to do … fight Obamacare tooth and nail … and gets Cruzified.

You can follow the old, “someone who agrees with me 70% of the time is my 70% friend, not my 30% enemy” chestnut… and broadly that is valid. Sometimes you have to accept half a loaf. But not every compromise is worth making. There have to be some deal-breakers attached to that:

• Amnesty – The importation of millions of unskilled foreign workers at a time when millions of Americans can’t find work is a crime against the working class.
• Gun Control – The Second Amendment is Sacrosanct. And we know even the most benign-sounding gun control law is just part of the “just the tip” incrementalism the left uses to lead to eventual gun confiscation. They have admitted it. Repeatedly. And openly.
• Fiscal Responsibility – Wasting money is a thing up with which we should not put. And especially no sucker deals where Democrats promise cuts later for tax increases now and the cuts never, ever happen.

You could probably add abortion-on-demand to that list as well. But the key point is, there is something very important that the Establishment GOP political insiders and their highly paid consultants (not to mention the left) don’t get and that is this:

Conservative voters don’t care about party affiliation, and we don’t care about personalities; we don’t base our votes on whom we would prefer to have a beer with or who has the nicest crease in their pants. (We further think people who vote on those criteria are idiots.) We vote based on principles, and we expect those whom we vote for to uphold those principles once elected. And when they don’t uphold them, we get pretty pissed off about that.

Update: Remember John McCain’s Gang of 14, that classic case of bipartisan compromise, where 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans ganged up to save the filibuster, prevent the nuclear option, and s-can most of Bush 43′s judicial appointment? Today, the Democrats showed their gratitude.

I think the argument could be made, re: the recent confrontation over the debt ceiling and Obamacare. Via Ed Morrissey, Sen. Cruz hints at it in his ABC News interview:

“I will say that the reason this deal, the lousy deal was reached last night, is because, unfortunately, Senate Republicans made the choice not to support House Republicans,” Cruz told ABC News. “I wish Senate Republicans had united, I tried to do everything I could to urge Senate Republicans to come together and stand with House Republicans.”

First, let’s note that eighteen GOP Senators did stand with House Republicans, leaving 27 who didn’t.

But what about the 27? Some seem clueless about the larger issues, as for example, Sen. McCain who said “The real losers [in the shutdown] were the American people,” when the reverse is true: Americans lost when government re-opened under terms of greater debt, and with Obamacare intact.

As Morrissey didn’t support the recent confrontation, he goes on to argue that “The only way to dismantle ObamaCare is to win [future] elections.” I disagree.

Since raising the debt ceiling brings America closer to its coming default, and since Obamacare is bad law that harms our economy: then patriotic lawmakers should use any legal, constitutional means available to obstruct or delay them, with whatever votes they can muster today. Yes, rock the boat!

But 60% of Senate Republicans, it seems, would rather undercut the boat rockers – or even attack them. If their problem isn’t a form of Stockholm Syndrome, then I suspect it’s the GOP’s real civil war, K Street vs. the Tea Party.

K Street, or the GOP’s Washington / Big Government wing, has won a round and now presses the advantage by trashing the boat-rockers in the media. But I say, kudos to Sen. Cruz for at least having tried to do the right thing.

As former Sen. Jim DeMint has just said, of Obamacare:

The reason [we fight] is simple: to protect the American people from the harmful effects of this law…

More and more people have had their work hours cut, their jobs eliminated and their coverage taken away..

We know that premiums are going up due to ObamaCare—Americans are getting notices in their mailboxes every day…

[Americans] shouldn’t have to wait three more years for Congress to give them relief from this law, especially when the president has so frequently given waivers to his friends. Full legislative repeal may not be possible while President Obama remains in office, but delaying implementation by withholding funds from a law that is proven to be unfair, unworkable and unaffordable is a reasonable and necessary fight.

Raising the debt ceiling is equally bad law. Would that more of the GOP had seen clearly on that as well as Obamacare, and stood up to obstruct both.

Interesting piece from Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner, Tea party loosens K Street’s stranglehold on the GOP.

…the Tea Party smashed K Street’s monopoly on Republican fundraising. The Club for Growth was founded in the late 1990s, and early last decade, it began targeting liberal Republicans in primaries…
In 2009, Sen. Jim DeMint founded the Senate Conservatives Fund…

While GOP leaders backed candidates like Charlie Crist (Fla.) and Trey Grayson (Ky.) in 2010 primaries, the SCF backed Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. K Street and the National Republican Senatorial Committee worked hand-in-hand — but for a change, there was a countervailing force.

Which led to Rubio’s and Paul’s victories:

The Club for Growth was Paul’s biggest source of funds, giving him $105,000…[SCF] kicked in $36,685. These two groups, together with FreedomWorks, also spent big on independent expenditures for Paul.

Ted Cruz also came to Washington by defeating K Street. The Club for Growth spent more than $2.5 million helping Cruz in the Texas GOP primary, while the SCF spent about $800,000. K Street was backing Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — he got $500,000 from business PACs (33 times Cruz’s take), and GOP lobbyists hosted a fundraiser for him at the Capitol Hill townhouse of Democratic superlobbyist Tony Podesta.

As Cruz put it, “Everyone who makes their living from continuing the government-spending gravy train is supporting Dewhurst.”

[...]

“I don’t think there’s a way for Wall Street to punish the 25 to 50 hardcore House Republicans,” one Wall Street lobbyist told Politico in the first couple days of the shutdown. Referring to an anti-establishment libertarian freshman congressman, the lobbyist said, “I don’t think Justin Amash cares if Bank of America gives to him or not.”

A Republican who doesn’t care about Bank of America checks wasn’t possible before the Tea Party.

“Follow the money.”

All this may tie in with President Obama’s demand that the GOP reject the Tea Party. He said (8:46 in Beck’s clip):

I’m not going to [negotiate] until the more extreme parts of the Republican Party stop forcing John Boehner to issue threats about our economy.

First, remember that Obama is the one issuing threats about our economy. But his comments reflect that the Tea Party, because they want to actually halt the growth of government spending and change the Washington spending game, are an existential threat to Obama’s “Big Government” brand of politics.

And so, Obama wants the GOP to expel them and go back to Washington’s business-as-usual. They’re all in it together. The Democrats are 100% Big Government; the GOP are less so, but nonetheless have an establishment (K Street) which is fairly Big Government and 100% dedicated to playing the Washington game.

Our freedom is at stake. Ted Cruz and the GOP so-called “bomb throwers” protect it.

Hat tip, DrewM at Ace for airing Carney’s article.