GOP & Tea
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
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The chickens have come home to roost. And although the Democrats were left reeling, the pro-corporation traditional Republicans were hurt by gains made by the anti-corporate Tea Party Republicans.
For months I have been saying how the Tea Party movement was as much a rejection of the hypocritical GOP as it was a rebuke of President Obama and the Democratic Party. Well, less than a day after the Republicans retook the House of Representatives, the in-fighting has begun in the Senate.
Traditional GOP senators are now openly criticizing their colleagues who supported Tea Party senatorial candidates at the cost of the GOP's goal, a majority in the Senate. On the website Politico.com, traditional GOP Senator Lindsey Graham stated, "It was a good night for Republicans but it could have been a better one. We left some on the table."
Also on Politico.com, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott stated that, "We did not nominate our strongest candidates."
Those less than strongest candidates were named Angle of Nevada, O'Donnell of Delaware, Buck of Colorado, Fiorina in California, and possibly Miller of Alaska who may lose to write-in candidate and GOP establishment member Murkowski. A high-profile GOP Senator, who was not named, placed the blame for the GOP's failure to retake the Senate on Tea Party favorite Senator Jim DeMint with many in the Establishment wing of the GOP claiming that he took a selfish path to power that hurt the party's common cause. The un-named Senator stated that, "In the Senate, we had one Senator, with almost no following within the caucus, engaged in DeMint-style tactics and kept us from realizing our potential."
During the last election season DeMint's actions angered the establishment Republicans and it doesn't look like this rift will be mended easily in fact as of late Tuesday and early Wednesday some GOP senators were already blaming him as it became apparent that the party would fall short of their goal in the Senate. But Jim DeMint is not one to back down. And although Sen. DeMint has not yet directly addressed the criticism of him by his colleagues he did fire a warning shot to them in his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. He wrote: "Tea Party Republicans were elected to go to Washington and save the country - not be co-opted by the club (the establishment GOP). So put on your boxing gloves. The fight begins today."
Now in the midst of the raucous Tea Party celebrations across the country perhaps the celebrations should be tempered. Overall, out of the 144 Tea Party backed candidates only 45 were elected. That's a less than 32 percent success rate. Or it can be seen as a more than 68 percent failure rate. And as shown above in the sentiments of several Senate Republicans, some elections that could have been won by the traditional GOP candidate were lost by the Tea Party candidate. But with that said, enough of the Tea Party candidates were elected to make the GOP a little uncomfortable and unable to truly relish their victory. And many who supported the Tea Party candidates now want positions in the leadership of the GOP that the current GOP leadership do not wish to relinquish.
So although the election ended Tuesday night, the politicking continues. And the next two years promise to be interesting as GOP tries to prove that a party divided against itself can stand and it will be intriguing to watch as the two sides of the Republican Party, amongst themselves, hash out how far back they want to take this country.
Robert Betances
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
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The chickens have come home to roost. And although the Democrats were left reeling, the pro-corporation traditional Republicans were hurt by gains made by the anti-corporate Tea Party Republicans.
For months I have been saying how the Tea Party movement was as much a rejection of the hypocritical GOP as it was a rebuke of President Obama and the Democratic Party. Well, less than a day after the Republicans retook the House of Representatives, the in-fighting has begun in the Senate.
Traditional GOP senators are now openly criticizing their colleagues who supported Tea Party senatorial candidates at the cost of the GOP's goal, a majority in the Senate. On the website Politico.com, traditional GOP Senator Lindsey Graham stated, "It was a good night for Republicans but it could have been a better one. We left some on the table."
Also on Politico.com, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott stated that, "We did not nominate our strongest candidates."
Those less than strongest candidates were named Angle of Nevada, O'Donnell of Delaware, Buck of Colorado, Fiorina in California, and possibly Miller of Alaska who may lose to write-in candidate and GOP establishment member Murkowski. A high-profile GOP Senator, who was not named, placed the blame for the GOP's failure to retake the Senate on Tea Party favorite Senator Jim DeMint with many in the Establishment wing of the GOP claiming that he took a selfish path to power that hurt the party's common cause. The un-named Senator stated that, "In the Senate, we had one Senator, with almost no following within the caucus, engaged in DeMint-style tactics and kept us from realizing our potential."
During the last election season DeMint's actions angered the establishment Republicans and it doesn't look like this rift will be mended easily in fact as of late Tuesday and early Wednesday some GOP senators were already blaming him as it became apparent that the party would fall short of their goal in the Senate. But Jim DeMint is not one to back down. And although Sen. DeMint has not yet directly addressed the criticism of him by his colleagues he did fire a warning shot to them in his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. He wrote: "Tea Party Republicans were elected to go to Washington and save the country - not be co-opted by the club (the establishment GOP). So put on your boxing gloves. The fight begins today."
Now in the midst of the raucous Tea Party celebrations across the country perhaps the celebrations should be tempered. Overall, out of the 144 Tea Party backed candidates only 45 were elected. That's a less than 32 percent success rate. Or it can be seen as a more than 68 percent failure rate. And as shown above in the sentiments of several Senate Republicans, some elections that could have been won by the traditional GOP candidate were lost by the Tea Party candidate. But with that said, enough of the Tea Party candidates were elected to make the GOP a little uncomfortable and unable to truly relish their victory. And many who supported the Tea Party candidates now want positions in the leadership of the GOP that the current GOP leadership do not wish to relinquish.
So although the election ended Tuesday night, the politicking continues. And the next two years promise to be interesting as GOP tries to prove that a party divided against itself can stand and it will be intriguing to watch as the two sides of the Republican Party, amongst themselves, hash out how far back they want to take this country.
Robert Betances
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
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