GOP Civil War: Karl Rove to be the First Casualty?

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Grassroots Republican operatives and Movement conservatives are quickly turning against the GOP Establishment in the wake of the party’s expensive defeat this election cycle.

Republicans we spoke to this week voiced a near-universal disgust with the national Republican Party leaders and Washington political class, who are seen as having put their personal financial interest above winning the election.

As this internecine struggle gathers steam, the first target appears to be Karl Rove, the former Bush campaign mastermind who has dictated much of the GOP’s strategy over the past decade.

In the wake of the party’s 2012 losses, however, Rove and his well-funded American Crossroads super PAC have become a symbol of misguided Establishment strategy, party cronyism, and Beltway bloat. The fall from grace is perhaps unsurprising, given his group’s disastrous performance this cycle. According to a new report, American Crossroads got a mere 1% return on its $104 million investment in 2012 races.

For social conservatives, Rove’s treason began long before election day, when the Fox News contributor led the party’s tar-and-feathering of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, who came under fire for his now infamous “legitimate rape” comments. The party’s perceived betrayal of Akin confirmed what many grassroots conservative activists had long suspected: That the Republican Establishment was willing to throw the base under the bus to serve the interests of deep-pocketed donors.

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Obama’s Second Term: More Congress End-Run?

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photo credit: adam glanzmanA big unknown for President Obama’s second term is whether he will find a way to work with Congress or continue to push the limits of executive power.

The clearest signal may come before the year-end fiscal cliff: Obama said Friday he was “open to compromise,” but insisted on tax hikes on the rich. That may hurt chances for cooperation.

Obama’s last two years butting heads with the GOP House led him to increasingly focus on executive branch actions that cut Congress out of the loop.

Some analysts predict another end-run soon with a recess appointment that would open the door to principal write-downs on government-insured mortgages.

Two moves, in particular, this year have stretched executive power and touched off disputes as to whether Obama had exceeded his constitutional authority.

Read more from this story HERE.

Time to Throw Social Conservatives Out of the GOP?

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photo credit: wht_wolf9653It is time to throw the social conservatives out of the GOP. Look at what they got us — Barack Obama. It was the social conservatives who did it. They insisted the GOP support real marriage and children. To hell with that.

I’m getting this, in various forms, from lots of tea party activists. The GOP establishment in Washington is whispering it to each other. They look at Todd Aiken and Richard Mourdock and conclude that they, not Tommy Thompson, Heather Wilson, George Allen, Scott Brown, etc. are the problem.

It is time to get rid of the social conservatives.

What’s really going on here is that the people who voted Republican, but who disagree with pro-lifers and defenders of marriage, have decided it must be those issues. They can’t see how what happened actually happened unless it happened because the issues on which they disagree with the base played a role.

This is a psychological avoidance of larger issues and does not stack up to the data.

Mitt Romney won about a quarter of the hispanic vote and a tenth of the black vote.

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Congressman Warns of Greece-Like ‘Day of Reckoning’ to Hit America Without Course Correction

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photo credit: gage skidmoreBoth Republicans and Democrats are going to have to do that [turn the country around],” Fleming said. “What I fear is we’re going to be too late, and we’re going to run into a Greece-like situation,where we have riots and unemployment levels are up around 11 percent. That’s what we’ve been trying to avoid.”

Ultimately, Fleming said he thinks President Obama should be the one who compromises with House Republicans – not the other way around.

“I think that we should not compromise,” he said. “We need to hold to what’s important, because the real danger for this country is our debt and deficit and the impact it’s having on the economy. Just because the president was re-elected – and certainly many of the things that he believes in and wants to do, the private sector and economy doesn’t agree with that. We just had a number of companies announce layoffs as a result of Obama being re-elected. The stock market didn’t take the news very well. I’m getting calls already from private business owners telling me that they are pulling their fins in, they’re reducing their debt, and they’re just going to go on cash flow – they’re not going to grow or invest or hire.”

Fleming is upset with House Speaker John Boehner for promising via an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that the House GOP will seek a “comprehensive approach” to immigration reform in the wake of Tuesday’s election. (RELATED: Lawmaker rebukes Speaker of the House John Boehner for making promises to the media)

Fleming said he’s upset Boehner made such a promise without talking to House Republicans about it first. Obama raked in the Hispanic vote en masse over Mitt Romney and Republicans on Tuesday.

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Rising Number of States Seeing One-Party Rule

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photo credit: photologue_npDivided government still rules in the nation’s capital after last week’s Tuesday’s vote, but unity is increasingly the name of the game in cities such as Annapolis, Topeka, Concord and Little Rock.

In a little-noticed footnote to last week’s election, state legislature elections this year have produced the highest number of states with one-party rule in 60 years. Democrats or Republicans now have sole control of the governorship and both legislative chambers in 37 state capitals around the country.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which tracks party representation in the country’s 50 state governments, Democrats now control all three bases of power – the governorship and both houses of the state legislature – in 14 states and Republicans in 23, with only 12 states sharing power. (Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is considered nonpartisan.)

Regional power bases are also emerging, with Democrats increasingly dominating state governments across New England.

Conversely, after last week’s vote, the GOP for the first time since 1872 now controls the Arkansas House and Senate. Just 20 years ago, Republicans didn’t have a majority in a single legislative house in the states of the old Confederacy – now they control all 11.

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Sen. Mike Lee Says Republican Party Continues to Benefit from Tea Party

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photo credit: Michael.JolleyLee’s comments came after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) deemphasized the influence of the Tea Party in the House.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) argued that the GOP continues to benefit from the Tea Party.

Lee’s comments, made during an interview Friday with Laura Ingraham on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” came after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) deemphasized the influence of the Tea Party in the House. In a recent interview with ABC News, Boehner said that “We don’t have a Tea Party Caucus to speak of in the House.” He added that “all of us who were elected in 2010 were supported by the Tea Party.”

“I’m not sure what his intent was. And he’s not here to speak for himself. But what I can say is that this party has benefited because of the grassroots conservative political movement that started in 2009. Some have called it the Tea Party,” Lee said. “That brought us a Republican victory in 2010 in the House it brought us some victories in the Senate. And it has continued to benefit the party in the 2012 election cycle.”

“I really don’t know what John Boehner meant about this Tea Party Caucus,” Lee added. “It may have been that all he meant was that the Tea Party cause is itself the Republican cause. If that’s all he meant, then I agree with him wholeheartedly.”

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Mark Levin: ‘Republican Leaders Are Really Stupid People,’ ‘Bunch Of Self-Defeating Morons’ (+video)

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photo credit: markn3telReflecting on the aftermath of the presidential election, radio host Mark Levin said that “Republican leaders are really stupid people” and that if the party doesn’t change “I’m getting out.”

Levin was criticizing leaders in the Republican Party for seemingly caving to liberal demands before discussions on keys issues such as immigration have even taken place.

“You know, I’ve always known this but I’m coming to the conclusion yet again, that Republican leaders are really stupid people. And I’m coming to the conclusion that there are an awful lot of stupid people posing as commentators on cable TV.”

Levin took jabs at Speaker John Boehner for statements he made regarding Obamacare, taxes and immigration reform.

“I listen to John Boehner and I have to say, the man is very stupid. I’m sorry, it’s true. What do you want me to do, pretend otherwise? He’s not a conservative. He blurts out platitudes but he doesn’t give a damn. He’s ready to deal…Obama hasn’t said a damn thing publicly and already Boehner’s negotiating with himself – throwing out one principle after another.” Read more from this story HERE.

Who Authorized FBI Surveillance of Gen. Petraeus?

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Even by the standards of the friday afternoon news dump tradition, yesterday’s news that Gen. David Petraeus had resigned from the CIA was a stunner. The most heralded military officer of his generation fell from grace after it was revealed he’d had an affair with his biographer. The affair was discovered earlier this year soon after the FBI began monitoring his email. This raises a very serious question. Who authorized the FBI to monitor the e-mail of the Director of the CIA?

The Director of the CIA is one of the central individuals responsible for America’s national security and intelligence. His communications would, by their very nature, be one of the nation’s closest guarded secrets. According to FBI sources, the Bureau began surveillance of his email communication in the Spring of this year, after an email Petraeus sent to his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was misinterpreted to reference possible corruption.

First question: How did that initial email come to light? Second question: Who authorized the Bureau to pore over all his email communication? We are talking, after all, about the Director of the CIA. That cannot have been a decision made by a junior staffer at DOJ. I doubt that even the Director of the FBI could authorize the surveillance of a critical member of America’s national security team.

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Video: Liberal Commentator Says ‘Fox News Has To Be Demonized and Cut Off’

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Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan, who seemed to take the ups and downs of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign very personally, said in his Friday night appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” that the Republican Party should rebuke conservative talker Rush Limbaugh and “demonize and cut off” the Fox News Channel.

“The first conservative who will be the future of that party will be the one that says Rush Limbaugh does not speak for the Republican Party,” Sullivan said.

“He is a poison on the discourse, and until they start — you see, the media industrial complex on the right is so lucrative they don’t want to lose it. And it is now controlling a political party. That has to be severed. Fox News has to be demonized and cut off.”

Read more from this article HERE.

Is This Why CIA Chief Really Resigned? (+video)

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photo credit: b.r.q.JERUSALEM – The speculation surrounding the sudden resignation of CIA Chief General David Petraeus is focusing in large part on his role in an alleged cover-up of the attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi this past September.

Perhaps overlooked is the CIA’s role in purportedly using the Benghazi mission to coordinate U.S. aid to Syrian opposition groups and information those same insurgents include jihadists openly acting under the al-Qaida umbrella.

One week before he was slated to testify before Congress on the Benghazi debacle, Petraeus on Friday night announced his resignation, citing an extramarital affair, and it was reported he will no longer testify.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, charged in an interview with CNN that Petraeus is “at the center of this, and there are answers that only he has.” King was referring to the Benghazi attacks.

Asked if he will still call for Petraeus testify despite his resignation, Rep. King replied, “Absolutely, to me, he’s an absolutely necessary witness.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the Center for Western Journalism’s perspective on why Petraeus resigned: