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House Tea Partiers Snub GOP in 2014

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Photo Credit: AP Hard-line conservatives aren’t just sticking it to the national GOP by shutting down the government and bringing the nation to the brink of default – they’re also refusing to pony up to help their party defend the House in 2014.

With a little more than a year until the midterm election, many leaders of the shutdown strategy have yet to donate to the National Republican Congressional Committee, records show. At least eight of the debate’s 20 or so most outspoken figures have not given any money to the NRCC, and others have forked over token amounts.

Their refusal to contribute to the House GOP’s political arm, coming as Republicans are getting thumped by Democrats in the money race, is causing heartburn and frustration among Republican strategists charged with laying the groundwork for next year’s races. They say it is reinforcing a perception of the conservative gang that they’re only out for themselves and don’t much care about advancing the party’s larger cause.

Take Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, the libertarian acolyte of Ron Paul and one of the most outspoken lawmakers for a hard line on the budget and debt negotiations. Amash, who voted against the final deal to reopen the government, hasn’t contributed to the NRCC this year, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Nor has he given to the committee at any point during his two terms in Congress.

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Dem Rep. Steve Cohen: Tea Partiers are ‘Domestic Enemies’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Freedom To Marry/FlickrTennessee Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen called tea party congressional Republicans “domestic enemies” against which he must defend the country, describing them as rabid, sophomoric and in ambitious pursuit of their policies.

“I obviously do not have an opportunity to go within the conference, the Republican — we call it a caucus, they call it a conference,” Cohen said on Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Up with Steve Kornacki.” “But I know some of the members there — and a lot of those members — they’re rabid, they’re sophomoric, literally, they’re second term in Congress, never worked in politics before, and they think they are somehow like — it’s all talked in military terms. They think they’re some kind of guerrillas there to strike a blow for freedom.”

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IG That Watchdogs IRS–And Uncovered Targeting of Tea Party–‘Shut Down’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP/Charles DharapakWhile the Treasury Department has continued its basic operations since the government “shutdown” last Tuesday–collecting tens of billions in taxes and spending even more–the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), which conducts audits and investigations of the IRS, and which uncovered the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups, has been “shut down.”

“As of October 7 at 8:30 am, due to the continued lapse in appropriated federal funding, TIGTA’s normal operations are shut down,” says the recorded message at an “emergency notification” phone line that the IG’s office set up for its workers. “Employees should’ve already received instructions to not report to work, and to not incur any work related expenses.”

“We anticipate full cessation of audits, inspections and evaluations during the shutdown period,” says a TIGTA document obtained by CNSNews.com. The document is entitled “Bureau Shutdown Plans During Periods of Lapsed Appropriations, September 2013.”

According to the document, in addition to ceasing audits, investigations and evaluations, TIGTA is also furloughing 61% of its staff.

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Facing Threats of Termination, Official at Heart Of IRS Scandal “Retiring”

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Photo Credit: Getty/AFP

Photo Credit: Getty/AFP

Facing a possible firing, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the agency’s tea party scandal retired Monday, ending one chapter in a ruckus that has engulfed the tax-collection agency since spring.

Lois Lerner headed the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status when she was placed on paid leave in May. While she was in charge, the agency acknowledged that agents improperly targeted tea party groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Lerner first disclosed the targeting at a law conference in May, when she was asked a planted question about IRS treatment of political groups. Less than two weeks later, she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, citing her constitutional right not to incriminate herself.

A day after the hearing she was placed on paid leave at the age of 62.

Lerner’s retirement came as a review board was set to propose that she be fired, said a statement by Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

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Why 2014 Shapes Up to Be Another Tea Party Year

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Picture 2014 Another Tea Party YearThe last year has been highly informative for Americans who have been looking for information on hypocrisy, shabby intellectualism, broken promises, opportunism, populist dreck, and IPhones.

Since almost the moment Obama celebrated his re-election with Republican leader John Boehner by proposing to raise taxes on all of us, God has played an enormous practical joke on liberals.

In only ways He could, God has shown that liberals are wrong. Not just wrong, but really, really, seriously wrong. 

Demented even. And yeah, I’m talking about Ezra Klein.

No, the world really doesn’t work the way liberals want, they’ve found out, and what’s more, liberal leaders and scribblers know it. They have known it for years…

It’s been little less than a year for people who enthusiastically voted for Obama in 2012 to find this out. 

And what liberals miss in being wrong on specifics, they make up in volume. 

So let’s make a list, shall we?

1) Tax the Rich! Oh, and you too!…

2) The Great Sequester Doom…

3) IRS-NSA-MOUSE scandals….

4) Missiles Over the Mid-East…

5) Global Warming, er, Climate, uh, Change?…

6) Choooo, Choooo…Obamacare a’coming…

There’s more.

With Obama there is always more.

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Tea Party Republicans Flex Muscle, Put Boehner in Tight Spot as Shutdown Looms

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

House Speaker John Boehner once again finds himself caught in the middle of a Capitol brawl between Tea Party Republicans and his Democratic counterparts, as he tries to navigate the choppy political waters and prevent a government shutdown at the end of the month.

Tea Party-aligned members of Boehner’s caucus are flexing their muscle and pressuring him to allow a vote on an anti-ObamaCare measure as part of ongoing budget talks. They want the vote tied directly to the budget measure, and rejected a compromise plan earlier this week — leaving unclear how Congress might pass a short-term spending bill before funding runs out on Sept. 30.

Boehner, after meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Thursday morning, offered no hint of what the next step might be. In the face of heated intra-party squabbling — and even nastier accusations flying between Republican and Democrats — he projected cool.

“There’s all this speculation about these deadlines that are coming up. I’m well aware of the deadlines. So are my colleagues,” he said. “And so we’re working with our colleagues to work our way through these issues. I think there’s a way to get there. … There are a million options that are being discussed by a lot of people.”

But Boehner realizes that the party’s public image going into the 2014 elections could be at stake, with Democrats eager to pin the blame on them if Congress can’t reach a budget deal and there’s a partial shutdown. Lawmakers came within minutes of a shutdown during a budget fight in 2011, and have continued to pass a series of short-term measures — leaving the prospect of a shutdown perpetually over the horizon.

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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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South Carolina Tea Party Drafts Resolution Calling for Ouster of Lindsey Graham

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Photo Credit: Getty Image

Photo Credit: Getty Image

On Monday, Breitbart News reported that South Carolina Tea Party activists have drafted a resolution calling for the replacement of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., citing 29 points against the Republican senator.

In August, the Chesterfield County GOP passed the resolution with 98 percent of those present voting to approve the measure.

“This reflects the continued frustration of many in the party with officials who are elected as Republicans and then seem to forget the doctrine of the party when they assume office,” Joshua Cook wrote.

“The Chesterfield County Republican Party upholds traditional conservative Republican principles and we expect those who are elected under its banner to also adhere to this same standard,” said Chesterfield County GOP Executive Committeeman Glenn Gulledge. “Lindsey Graham has committed a long series of actions that we strongly disapprove of and hold to be fundamentally inconsistent with the principles of the South Carolina Republican Party.”

“The 29 points documented in this censure clearly illustrate this trend and make it clear that he is not consistently representing some of our most valued, time-honored tenets,” he added.

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Tea Party Returns to More Solid Ground, Midterm Challenges to Democrats and Republicans

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Photo Credit: APThe Tea Party is getting back on more solid ground — midterm elections where in 2010 the fledgling, grassroots movement unseated so-called “Washington insiders” and helped Republicans win control of the House.

The loosely-knit coalition of groups has already targeted some of the Republican Party’s most established candidates, accusing them of compromising their conservative principles in negotiating with Democrats.

The Tea Party Express even boasted this winter that promising to mount a primary challenge against Georgia Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss forced him to retire instead of seeking a third term.

“Lest anyone think this decision is about a primary challenge, I have no doubt that had I decided to be a candidate, I would have won re-election,” responded Chambliss, who was part of a bipartisan Senate group that tried to reduce the national debt.

One of the most recent, high-profile Tea Party challenges is in South Carolina, where Nancy Mace, the first female graduate of The Citadel, is trying to unseat two-term Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose efforts to pass immigration-reform legislation appears most upsetting to the movement.

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We Should Not Have to Hold Our Noses

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Cory Gardner was a tea party hero. In the last 48 hours, he’s become a weasel. Gardner bailed on a Tea Party Express event to support Congressman Meadows and Senator Lee’s attempts to defund Obamacare. Cory Gardner caved to pressure from the GOP leadership.

We sent him to Congress as a fighter and instead he’s become a lover of the establishment. It’s a fact and I suspect you’ll now see him try to weasel his words over the next forty-eight hours to claim he’s for full repeal and defunding doesn’t do enough, so he won’t support it — or something like that. It’s what John Cornyn has been saying.

When they can get a pass, these guys will vote for symbolic votes against Obamacare. But when the heat is on, they won’t vote to defund it. How many times have they cast symbolic votes? And now that they have a substantive vote and fight on the issue they fold like cheap suits.

In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager was caught on tape saying he would have to hold his nose for two years to run McConnell’s campaign. Jesse Benton’s loyalty is with Rand Paul. Rand Paul wants to run for President. So Rand Paul is coddling the establishment and Jesse Benton is working for Mitch McConnell with his nose closed.

Conservatives should not have to hold their noses to vote in primaries.

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