Too much? Even for mainstream Republicans?Conventional wisdom is that congressional teabaggers are in such safely gerrymandered districts that they have little to worry about from their overwhelmingly white, angry, low-info constituents.
John Cornyn must have felt ambushed when mild-mannered centrist, Bob Schieffer threw him onto the grill when he appeared on Face the Nation Sunday. Schieffer just pounded him on the Republicans' whole blackmail and terrorism approach to governance.
Friday morning, the political class was chattering about Jonathan Martin's NY Times piece, GOP Elders See Liabilities In Shutdown, but not because Bob Dole, Haley Barber, Ed Gillespie or George H.W. Bush is warning House Republicans away from their lunatic lurch over the cliff.
Nunes calls teabaggers "lemmings with suicide vests"-- but he votes with them 100% of the timeNo one ever accused Devin Nunes of being a "moderate." He's a hardcore conservative whose political career has been financed by the insurance industry, corporate agriculture and Big Pharma. Although his San Joaquin Valley district (CA-22) is increasingly Hispanic, the voters are still Republican enough there for him to not have to worry about Democrats seriously challenging him.
This week Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes had a typically gratuitous and nasty diatribe against President Obama in the Wall Street Journal featuring a bizarro-world right-wing reinterpretation of history; nothing new there.
Far right Republican Congressman Gary Miller (CA) was basically redistricted out of office... except he managed to win a very blue district because of a quirk in California's new election law that found him running against a fellow Republican in the general, all the Democrats having eliminated each other in a crowded open primary. Obama had won what is now CA-31 (Colton Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Redlands, Rancho Cucamonga) with 122,691 votes (57%) against McCain's 89,376 (41%) in 2008. Last year Obama scored another 57-41% victory in the district, taking 118,043.
Steven Palazzo has represented southeast Mississippi (MS-04-- Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, Laurel) since the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010 when he beat longtime incumbent Gene Taylor. Unless you live in some blood-red hellhole, you probably never met a public official as right-wing and extreme as Palazzo.
On Saturday, John Culberson (R-TX), marched out of the GOP House caucus meeting that had resolved to shut down the government, shouting "Let's Roll," a true suicide-bombing terrorist. Except his neatly gerrymandered R+13 district (which Romney won 60-39%) won't extract any penalty from its harebrained congressman.
Suicide bomber vests strapped to their chests, congressional Republicans have a message for the American people: "Give us our way, or we'll blow the whole damn thing up!" And by their way, they're talking about a lot more than defunding the Affordable Care Act. Yesterday, the NY Times Editorial Board was aghast at the Republican demands-- and they called it what it is A Republican Ransom Note.
The Republican base is restive. They're also dumber than a pile of dog poop. In a recent poll, half the participants were asked if they support Obamacare and the other half if they support the Affordable Care Act.
