A party that won’t be saved: GOP dead-enders and “reform conservatives” duke it out
Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin teamed up to show "Reformicons" just how tough reforming the GOP will be
Topics: Chris McDaniel, editor's pickss, GOP, Mike Simpson, reform conservatives, reformicons, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, thad cochranc, The Right, Politics News
The last couple of weeks have been a coming out party of sorts for the “Reformicons,” the group of conservative intellectuals who have taken it upon themselves to reform the Republican Party into something less dogmatic and more electable. They were the subject of a New York Times Magazine profile and countless think pieces. They were the topic of a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution. Pundits were commenting on the resurgence of conservative intellectualism and wondering whether a gaggle of economics-obsessed conservatives could wrest control of the GOP from the cranks and the dead-enders. It all came down to variations of the same question: “Can ‘reformicons’ save the Republican Party?”
As if to answer that question and underline the challenges facing the conservative reform movement, the cranks and the dead-enders rose up as one this past week to put on a muscular demonstration of political stupidity.
Let’s start with Ted Cruz, since there’s no better avatar of the modern Republican Party’s aversion to responsible governance than the junior senator from Texas. Cruz is the vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and his Tea Party pedigree has always brought an element of tension to the position since the Tea Party is on a crusade to unseat incumbent Republican senators. In March, he said he was stepping back from his NRSC duties during the primaries because he couldn’t bring himself to back the incumbent senators. During the ugly Republican Senate primary in Mississippi, conservatives were pushing for Cruz to quit the NRSC so that he could throw his support behind Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party challenger to Sen. Thad Cochran.
Ever since McDaniel narrowly lost the primary runoff to Cochran, the whole situation has spiraled into chaos. McDaniel has been angrily disputing the election results and making allegations of voter fraud. His supporters are claiming Cochran bought the votes of black Democrats. It’s desperate and obscene and a rolling calamity for the GOP – and Ted Cruz just made it worse.
On Mark Levin’s radio program yesterday, Cruz called for an investigation into the allegations of voter fraud in Mississippi, giving a boost to McDaniel and challenging the legitimacy of the candidate backed by the campaign committee he serves on. This obviously is awkward for the NRSC (they refused to comment on Cruz’s role on the committee) and an embarrassment for every other Republican who’d rather the fiasco just go away.
On the policy front, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee took the first step toward what could be yet another partial government shutdown. When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its new rule limiting the amount of carbon that can be emitted from existing coal-fired power plants, Republicans (and a few Democrats from coal country) vowed to oppose it. Rep. Mike Simpson said last month that they might attach a rider to a must-pass appropriations bill to prevent the rule from being implemented.
