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The GOP Elites Never Miss an Opportunity to Pick a Fight

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

In the midst of the Navy Yard attack, former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum took advantage of the chaos to attack gun rights advocates. Gun control is a repeated hobbyhorse for Frum, who blamed the “gun lobby” for the atrocity at Sandy Hook Elementary in December. His reaction to Navy Yard placed him in common company with a newly-adrenalized Russian diplomat, who used the event to mock America.

A few days before, Frum’s ideological ally, David Brooks, took to the airwaves on PBS’ Newshour to attack what he called “the rise of Ted Cruz-ism,” his term for the efforts of conservatives to tackle such “fringe” priorities as ObamaCare, which is more loathed by the American people than ever. Brooks has been at war with the conservative grassroots since long before the Tea Party, calling Sarah Palin a “fatal cancer” in Oct. 2008.

Both Frum and Brooks are from Canada–a fact that would not merit mention, save for the additional fact that Brooks seems to think that it is acceptable to attack Cruz’s Canadian birth as a mark of illegitimacy. He called Cruz “the senator from Canada through Texas,” a meaningless, pseudo-nativist slur that he evidently believed would strike some kind of ironic chord with PBS’s urbane, intellectual, cosmopolitan, left-leaning audience.

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To Win Minority Vote, GOP Has to Show it’s Ready to Battle Privileged Interests

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

How can Republicans do better with minority voters?

The party establishment seems to think the answer begins with amnesty and more low-skilled labor — which just happens to be the policy preference of the GOP’s donor class. Beyond this, the party’s top consultants offer only rhetorical tweaks around the typical GOP package of low-tax corporatism.

A better minority outreach can be found in libertarian populism.

The libertarian populist argument is that the game is rigged in favor of the big and well-connected and against the small and unconnected. This argument should be aimed mainly at the “47 percent” that Mitt Romney wrote off and denigrated: working-class voters who find it hard to get ahead.

Political analyst Sean Trende noted that a large potentially Republican bloc of voters stayed home in 2012 — working-class white voters. Some conservatives have argued that the GOP can and must win these voters.

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New Poll Shows GOP Shifting in Fascinating New Direction

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Republicans in record numbers moving toward the ideals and principles of libertarianism, according to a new poll by released by the grassroots group FreedomWorks.

The survey of all registered voters, which was conducted last month, found that a full 78 percent of Republican and GOP-leaning voters self-identify as being fiscally conservative and socially moderate

The results of the survey were first shared with POLITICO.

The poll found that its Republican and independent-leaning respondents aren’t suddenly advocating legalized marijuana and instructing people to read “The Fountainhead.” Rather, as POLITICO’s James Hohman notes, many self-identified Republicans are simply falling in line with traditional libertarian views on limited government.

This comes after years of GOP domination by “defense hawks” and “social conservatives.”

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Sen. Lee: GOP Scheme to Both Defund AND Fund Obamacare ‘Disgraceful’ (+audio)

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photo credit: gage skidmore

photo credit: gage skidmore

In an interview on the nationally syndicated Mark Levin Show yesterday, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) slammed the Republican-led initiative to simultaneously propose legislation to fund and defund Obamacare.

Lee rhetorically asked Levin, “With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats?”

Lee explained that Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is putting forward two different legislative proposals in one single vote.

One would defund Obamacare. The other would be a continuing resolution that would fund everything in government, including Obamacare.

This would allow House Republicans to vote both to fund and defund the president’s signature health law simultaneously, according to Lee.

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Tea Party Increasingly Unhappy with GOP Leadership

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Photo Credit: Pew Research

Photo Credit: Pew Research

As lawmakers return for what promises to be a busy fall session, GOP congressional leaders face mounting disapproval among Tea Party Republicans. Just 27% of Republicans and GOP leaners who agree with the Tea Party approve of the job Republican leaders in Congress are doing, compared with 71% who disapprove.

The job rating of GOP leaders among Tea Party Republicans has fallen 15 points since February, from 42% to 27%. Disapproval has risen from 54% to 71% over this period. There has been no similar decline among Republicans who do not agree with the Tea Party. Currently, 42% of non-Tea Party Republicans and Republican leaners approve of how GOP leaders in Congress are handling their job, which is little changed over the past year.

This internal dissent contributes to the lower job ratings Republican leaders receive from the public when compared with Democratic congressional leaders. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Sept. 4-8 among 1,506 adults, finds that just 24% of the public approves of Republican leaders’ job performance, while somewhat more (33%) approve of the job of Democratic congressional leaders.

This modest advantage for Democratic leaders stems from the substantially more positive job ratings they receive from their own base: 57% of Democrats and Democratic leaners approve of how Democratic congressional leaders are handling their job. That compares with just 36% of Republicans and Republican leaners who approve of the job their party leaders are doing. Democratic and Republican leaders get similarly low job ratings from members of the opposition party.

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Norquist Has Leadership’s Back Against Heritage, Club for Growth

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Photo Credit: CQ Roll Call

Photo Credit: CQ Roll Call

A House GOP leadership team whose best-laid plans have been continually torpedoed by Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth has a familiar ally as it tries to avert a government shutdown: Grover Norquist.

It’s not hard to find frustration with Heritage Action and the Club for Growth among senior Republicans, who believe the groups’ demand that they include Obamacare defunding language on any spending bill keeping the government open will ultimately empower Democrats in a series of fall battles over spending. They believe it’s part of a pattern of pushing untenable demands that have no chance of becoming law.

“Heritage Action and Club for Growth are slowly becoming irrelevant Neanderthals,” one senior GOP aide said.

“Heritage is working harder to elect Democrats than the DCCC,” another senior GOP aide said, referring to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “And those efforts to defeat Republicans are marginalizing them and destroying the reputation of the institution built by Ed Feulner and once revered by all conservative members.”

A band of conservatives, with Heritage Action and Club for Growth cheering them on, forced leadership Wednesday to delay consideration of the continuing resolution until next week. The strategy from House leadership would give Republicans a chance to tell their constituents they voted to defund Obamacare and blame the Senate for saving it. But it’s a far cry from the shutdown showdown the defund die-hards are demanding.

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GOP Senators’ Petition to Defund Obamacare Hits 1 Million Signatures (+video)

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Photo Credit: BizPac

Photo Credit: BizPac

With less than a month to go before millions of Americans will be required to enroll in Obamacare, the petition to defund the program has hit a landmark 1 million signatures – on schedule, by Labor Day.

In what’s being called the last chance to stop Obamacare, U.S. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are going full-bore to get other senators to sign on.

Last week, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin signed the petition supporting the effort.

“The time for rhetoric and ceremonial votes in Congress is over,” Palin said in a statement released at the time. “The time to take serious action to stop Obamacare is now.”


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GOP Targets Alaska’s Mark Begich Over Carbon Tax

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The National Republican Senatorial Committee Wednesday will launch a robo-call campaign in Alaska targeting Sen. Mark Begich for his support of a carbon tax.

NRSC plans to call nearly 70,000 households statewide about what it calls the Alaska Democrat’s “steadfast support for the costly carbon tax,” according to a script of the calls provided to POLITICO. A carbon tax means “more EPA red tape regulation,” says the script, which cites National Association of Manufacturers’ data to contend it would increase electricity, natural gas and gasoline prices and hurt Alaskan jobs.

“Sen. Begich didn’t paint that picture for you did he?” says the script. “Higher taxes, higher energy costs and Sen. Begich just don’t work for Alaska.”

The NRSC is aiming the calls at all female voters and likely male swing voters across the state.

The claims are based on Begich’s support for a non-binding amendment to this year’s budget resolution by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) that would have called for any revenue generated by a carbon tax to be “returned to the American people in the form of federal deficit reduction, reduced federal tax rates, cost savings or other direct benefits.”

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Gov. Mike Pence Delivers Weekly GOP Address: How Obamacare Hurts Jobs (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

GOP: In the Weekly Republican Address, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana discusses how Obamacare is “costing jobs, discouraging investment, and making the future bleak for too many families” nationwide. Unlike the Washington-knows-best mandates in Obamacare, Gov. Pence explains how his state has “lowered costs and improved outcomes” by “letting freedom and personal responsibility work together” through “a nationally–recognized program called the Healthy Indiana Plan.”

GOV. MIKE PENCE:

“Hello, I’m Indiana Governor Mike Pence.
“These are difficult days for too many Americans. Our economy isn’t growing as fast as we would like, and businesses aren’t creating as many jobs as we need. In states like Indiana, we’re working every day to give people more freedom to grow their businesses, but the over-regulation, higher taxes and new mandates coming from Washington, D.C. are stifling our economy and hurting efforts being made in states across the country.

“Everywhere I go in Indiana, I meet business owners and workers who are in survival mode. They’re trying to figure out how to survive the new normal of more regulations, higher taxes and the impending costs and mandates of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

“As implementation of this law gets closer, we are learning more about the burdens it will place on hardworking Americans. In Indiana, the Affordable Care Act will raise the average cost of health insurance in the individual market by an unaffordable 72 percent…

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Cruz: Ignore Media, GOP ‘Can Win’ Defunding Obamacare Argument

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ted cruz immigrationAt a spirited town hall today, Senator Ted Cruz pushed for Obamacare to be defunded in the upcoming spending bill.

“Our friends in the media like to tell us this is not a fight we can win,” Cruz told attendees at the event which was sponsored by Heritage Action. “Let me tell you how we win this fight. The house of representatives will pass a continuing resolution that funds everything, everything in its entirety, except Obamacare.”

“What happens next is President Obama and Harry Reid are going to scream and yell ‘Those mean nasty Republicans are threatening to shut down the federal government,’” Cruz continued. “What has to happen after that is we’ve got to do something conservatives haven’t done in a long time. We’ve got to stand up and win the argument.”

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