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Grenade Tossed in GOP Civil War

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Photo Credit: WND Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, has announced his office has taken the initial steps to call for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Cornyn is the Senate minority whip and second-most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill.

He is also facing a challenge from Stockman for his Senate seat in the Texas GOP primary on March 4.

A Stockman spokesman told WND a formal Request For Investigation was filed with the Senate Ethics Committee Monday. He said Cornyn could face as many as 24 counts of using his Senate office to promote his reelection campaign.

The congressman claims he has been targeted by establishment Republicans and broke the news to WND on Jan. 31 that he was suing Cornyn’s Super PAC for libel.

Read more from this story HERE.

Michelle Malkin Girds for 2014 GOP Civil War

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Photo Credit: APMichelle Malkin doesn’t run away from fights, she runs toward them. And she’s running faster than ever headlong into the 2014 Republican primary battles on behalf of upstart conservative candidates who are mounting insurgent challenges to the GOP old guard.

Twitter is Malkin’s weapon of choice. Battles with her almost always devolve into wars, and those who follow the conservative social media scene know she has a proven formula online: Taunting quips from foes bring out the full force of her Twitter arsenal, with snappy replies, catchy hashtags and the mobilization of a legion of energized followers.

Malkin, 43, says she’s using her influence — and her confrontational approach — on behalf of candidates she deems worthy of it in this year’s midterm.

“I see the practically unlimited power that social media has to help push the issues and causes and people I care about,” Malkin told POLITICO in a recent interview. “I know what I’m good at.”

She’s focusing on backing politicians challenging establishment Republicans — for instance, she’s thrown her support behind Katrina Pierson, who is campaigning to unseat longtime incumbent Rep. Pete Sessions in Texas.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tea Party Still Standing Tall in Fight to Reform GOP

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Photo Credit: APThe Republican civil war erupted into full view this fall, and the establishment looked like it was about to shove the movement back in line.

But the early skirmishes ended with the tea party no weaker than it was.

And while the party’s internal fight will rage on, the opening battles suggest the establishment is just starting to see how much it will take to reclaim the power it has ceded to the movement in recent years.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s first big play: threaten to blacklist any consultant who does business with a key group taking on sitting Republicans.

The result: pretty much business as usual.

Read more from this story HERE.

It’s the Democrats, Not the GOP, Facing a Looming Civil War

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Photo Credit: Pablo Martinez MonsivaisDespite what the hysterical media will tell you, those distant blasts you heard last week rolling from New York City to Richmond were not cannon fire from the ongoing civil war within the Republican Party. They were the first shots fired in the civil war that is about to break wide open within the Democratic Party.

The hyperventilating media have gone from simply jaundiced sideline observers to outright cheerleaders, breathlessly fanning the flames of discord within the GOP at every turn. Who knew The New York Times cares so much about Republican politicians from Texas and Utah? Of course, they don’t. Unless those conservative Texans and Utahans are in a knife fight with establishment Republicans in Washington.

Last Tuesday’s Democratic routs in Virginia and in New York City, the media squealed with delight, was final proof that the Republican Party is finished. Not only in sophisticated places like New York City, but also important battleground states like Virginia.

Now it is certainly true that Republicans have suffered some humiliating defeats of late. Chief among them has been their inability in three elections to win the argument against Obamacare. Now that Americans have met Obamacare, we realize just how pathetic Republicans had to have been to lose that fight.

All of that pain caused in recent years by the tea party and the conservative purists throwing overboard so many of the whorish politicians in their own midst who came to Washington only to be corrupted will pay off down the road. The growing new voices in the Republican Party sound more and more reasonable and principled by the day, especially with the hot disaster that has become of centralized socialist medicine.

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Establishment GOP vs Grassroots: Civil War or Growing Pains?

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Photo Credit: FreedomWorksBecause I am a nice guy and don’t want anyone to waste their time, here is a quick list of those who won’t enjoy this post:

1) People working for Mitch McConnell’s reelection.

2) People who come from families that internalize everything rather than fight it out and get it over with.

3) People who are Mitch McConnell.

The last several weeks have brought to the fore some ugly realities that the establishment GOP was hoping it could deal with using its go-to conflict resolution strategy: put it off, hope the problem goes away and then perhaps a nap.

Led by a host of Republican senators whose most notable achievement is getting elected a lot, the old guard has been busy publicly admonishing the more Tea Party-minded additions to the fold that they don’t know anything.

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Boehner Blasted Over GOP Purge

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Given everything on his plate, you wouldn’t expect John Boehner to face an uproar over the likes of Justin Amash and Tim Huelskamp . . .

But many on the right are furious with the House speaker for purging them and two other conservative Republicans from key committee assignments. That may be inside baseball, but these folks are keeping score.

Boehner was retaliating—there’s no other word for it—against the lawmakers for repeatedly voting against the GOP leadership. He served notice at a closed-door meeting that rank-and-file votes are being “watched” by his team, according to The Hill . . .

Erick Erickson, the influential RedState blogger and CNN commentator, sounds supremely frustrated: “Conservatives are either going to hang together or separately. Right now they are getting played because Boehner, McConnell, and the like are sure the conservative movement has become a paper tiger. And, to be honest, conservatives have shown them this is true.”

What conservatives need to do, he says, is pump money and field challengers against establishment candidates: “Either start blowing stuff up or shut up.”

Read full story HERE.

Purged Reps Speak Out: ‘Petty’ ‘Vindictive’ Establishment Punishing Members for Voting Conservative

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A day after learning he was yanked from from the Agriculture Committee, Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp lit into GOP leaders Tuesday, charging that conservative Republicans are punished for not toeing Speaker John Boehner’s line.

“No good deed goes unpunished,” Huelskamp said at a Heritage Foundation event. “We were not notified about what might occur but it confirms in my mind the deepest suspicions that most Americans have about Washington D.C: it’s petty, it’s vindictive, and if you have conservative principles you will be punished.”

Huelskamp spoke at the briefing with Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who was booted from the Budget Committee as part of a series of committee moves by Republican leaders that drew criticism from the right. Amash said he still hadn’t been contacted by leadership about what happened, and neither man has been told which committees they’ll be appointed to in the next Congress.

Huelskamp said that when the Republican freshman class of 2010 came in, they were told they had to fundraise for the party and notify leadership how they would vote but could otherwise “vote their conscience and their district.”

His removal, the congressman said, was “not about principle, it was about obedience.”

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It’s On: GOP Split Resurfaces in West Virginia Senate Race

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West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito’s Senate candidacy is already creating an unsettling sense of déjà vu for Republicans.

An experienced and popular candidate with wide name recognition announces a bid in a state that looks ripe for a pickup — and anti-establishment, Beltway-based conservatives swiftly object . . .

“Congresswoman Capito has a long record of support of bailouts, pork and bigger government,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in a statement. “She voted to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for massive expansions of government-run health insurance, giveaways to Big Labor, and repeatedly voted to continue funding for wasteful earmarks like an Exploratorium in San Francisco and an aquarium in South Carolina. That’s not the formula for GOP success in U.S. Senate races.”

The Senate Conservatives Fund, which was founded by South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, also signaled outright opposition.

“Congresswoman Capito is not someone we can endorse because her spending record in the House is too liberal,” said SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins. “If Republicans in West Virginia want to save their country, they need to find another candidate with the courage to say ‘no’ to more spending and debt.”

Read full story HERE.