As the House voted today for a budget bill that would defund Obamacare – and risk a government shutdown in 11 days -- the donnybrook within the GOP shows no signs of subsiding.
With Texas tea party Sen. Ted Cruz in the center of the dust-up, the latest to join the fray is Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who said: “I didn’t go to Harvard or Princeton, but I can count — the defunding box canyon is a tactic that will fail and weaken our position,” Corker said, a clear reference to the Harvard- and Princeton-educated Cruz. And an obvious caution that the GOP lacks the majority in the Senate and cannot keep the House budget bill intact.
Republican Rep. Peter King of New York also weighed in, saying that Cruz and two other tea party favorites, Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have disrupted the legislative process to the point of a breakdown.
“I would just say if anything good comes from all of this, when Ted Cruz and Rand Paul or Mike Lee fail in the Senate next week, maybe finally we Republicans will have ended their influence,” King told CNN.
“We as House Republicans should stop letting Ted Cruz set our agenda for us,” King continued. “He should stay in the Senate, keep quiet. If he can deliver on this, fine. If he can’t, he should keep quiet from now on and we shouldn’t listen to him.”
On the other side of this political food fight, several House Republicans have jumped all over Cruz since he suggested on Wednesday that the crusade to scuttle Obamacare lies in the hands of the House, where the GOP majority prevails, not in the Senate. That was immediately viewed by many conservative hardliners in the House as waving the flag of surrender.
One senior House Republican aide reportedly said Sens. Cruz, Lee and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) "are like the kids in high school who would yell fight 'fight, fight' but have never thrown a punch in their entire life."
Another said Senate Republicans are good at getting Facebook “likes” and organizing town hall meetings, but "not much else."
In response, Cruz deadpanned: "I'm always impressed by the courage of anonymous congressional aides."
But one remark may have really hit a nerve with the freshman senator. Referring to the Democratic state senator from Texas who recently waged a day-long, highly publicized filibuster against abortion restrictions, one unnamed House GOP source said: "Wendy Davis has more balls than Ted Cruz."
After that, Cruz quickly shifted gears and on Thursday vowed to launch a Senate filibuster in favor of Obamacare defunding when the House sends its budget bill over.
Certainly no shrinking violet, Cruz is wavering from his previous stand that the GOP majority in the House is where the party should make a final stand on Obamacare. After the senator spent the August recess begging for a fight on Obamacare, the House response when Cruz presumably stepped aside was understandably hostile.
Over the past 24 hours, following the White House statement that indicated, not surprisingly, that President Obama will veto any legislation that attempts to pull the plug on health care reform, the Republican talking points have reverted to this: By placing such a high priority on Obamacare, it’s actually the president who is threatening to shut down the government.
Meanwhile, Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer has said the Republican strategy makes no sense because the policy goal – gutting the Affordable Care Act – is unattainable. Strategist Karl Rove said the move would be self-destructive as voters would blame the GOP for the shutdown. Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly blames the push on “fanaticism” within the GOP.
Nicolle Wallace, who served as communications director for President George W. Bush, called the House GOP plan “stupid” and “idiotic.” She compared the situation on Capitol Hill to a 5-year-old riding a scooter who needs adult supervision so he doesn’t go into traffic and get “squished.”
And then there’s Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid who has a front-row seat for all of this drama and is enjoying every minute of it. On the Senate floor Thursday morning, Reid said of Republicans: It’s “good political theater to watch them self-destruct.”
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