I could call this RINO fratricide in jealous defense of amnesty, border erasure, all the cheap labor they could ever dream of (and its slavery overtones), and putting the Republican Party back in the impotent minority and the Democrats in power forever more - or "restoring the way of things," in the words of Remata'Klan. And I would be right. Or I could call this "The Establishment Strikes Back," a massive retaliation - and escalation - of all the almost across-the-board failed attempts by Tea Partiers to primary and take out "establishment" incumbents during the 2014 midterm cycle - or "Don't throw rocks at guys holding machine guns". And again I would be right.
So I'll just lede with this: My God, I hate the GOP civil war:
The influential and well-heeled business group is already eyeing several races, but the plans are still in their infancy and the targets have not yet been decided upon, according to more than a half dozen Republican sources on K Street and Capitol Hill.
The group’s apparent new willingness to engage in hand-to-hand political combat to take out sitting Republicans would represent a major shift for the business community, which has largely shied away from targeting sitting lawmakers…
Because opening up seats for Democrats to steal that they wouldn't have otherwise has generally been seen as being bad for business. But TPers have apparently so pissed off the corporatist bluenoses with their own fratricidal rampages that mutually assured political destruction is now worth it to the latter.
“Last year, we were very aggressive in primaries and the general, and we intend to be again,” Holmes said. “It’s not a change in policy as much as it is a recommitment to last cycle’s successful approach.” She added that the candidate it backed won in fourteen of the fifteen races the Chamber got involved in last year…
“The fact that there are still members of the Republican House that are obstructionist, isolationists that would be willing to shut down the government only reinforces that the Chamber and the business community, for that matter, will double down on this winning formula,” Caldeira said. [emphases added]
A few things: (1) That "winning strategy" was almost entirely defensive last cycle; incumbency is a much higher hurdle to get over, for the Chamber of Commerce as well as the Tea Party; (2) The only way the term "obstructionist" makes any sense is in the context of Barack Obama's unlawful, unconstitutional amnesty rampage, which should tell us everything anybody ought to need to know about the Chamber's "Republican" bona fides; (3) The only "isolationist" in either House of Congress to my recollection is Rand Paul, so if they want to cut his balls off, be my guest. Although if he's giving up his senate seat in his doomed presidential quest, he's saving them the trouble; and (4) It's the Democrats who always shut down the government while blaming it on the GOP, and are planning to do it again, which Mr. Caldeira would be able to see if his head wasn't shoved so far up his ass that he could recycle his own breakfast.
Which brings us to how Donald Trump is as much a stalking horse for what used to be known as the Rockefelleroids as he is for Hillary Clinton:
I’m trying to imagine the effect on conservative morale next spring if we end up with a double whammy of Jeb Bush cruising towards the nomination while the Chamber of Commerce sets about zapping House conservatives like Jim Jordan, Raul Labrador, and Tim Huelskamp. If you thought Jebmania turnout on the right was looking ferocious before, wait until the last stumbling blocks to comprehensive immigration reform have been primaried into oblivion by country-clubbers. In fact, this is easy red meat for Donald Trump if he’s inclined to take on the business class he’s a part of. Nothing would build his conservative cred faster than rising to the defense of the people in Congress who are most opposed to open borders and who are now evidently on the electoral menu for corporate America. You can write the script yourself: “Take it from a guy who’s worth $10 billion, a secure border is more important than better margins on labor.” He [doesn't] believe it, but it’d make for a great populist speech.
I agree with you, my Tea Party friends: [BLEEP] the Chamber of Commerce. I'm no more in favor of the "establishment" primarying Tea Party incumbents into oblivion than I am TPers primarying "establishment" incumbents to the same fate (unless the latter are safe Republican seats, anyway). And I don't think that Jeb Bush is going to "cruise" anywhere except back to wherever the hell he came from.
But the scenario in which Bush III is crowned the GOP nominee features Donald Trump suffocating all the conservative alternatives with his flamboyantly caustic and phony grandstanding and luring Tea Party voters straight off that cliff.
The country-clubbers are a lost cause. But, for God's sake, wake up, TPers, before it's too late.
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