Brian4Liberty
03-06-2015, 04:39 PM
Rebels with a cause (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/rebels-with-a-cause-115806.html)
A new group of far-right House Republicans tries to show they’re not just a band of demagogues.
By Jake Sherman and Lauren French - 3/6/15
Sitting in a room on the fourth floor of the Cannon building, sipping soda and beer minutes after they helped defeat a three-week extension of Homeland Security funding, the roughly two dozen House conservatives who in January declared themselves the Freedom Caucus were looking to flex their muscles again.
They made the House Republican leaders an offer — a one-week funding bill, with the option for another two weeks if formal negotiations with the Senate were launched. After breaking for dinner, and scrolling through news on their iPhones and BlackBerrys, the group walked back to the House floor together to watch leadership’s machinations firsthand.
...
Salmon and other members of the Freedom Caucus made clear that their purpose isn’t simply endless debate. For years, the nucleus of conservative thought in the House has been the Republican Study Committee, which holds meetings that are large and ideologically diverse. The group has been risk-averse, hardly ever unifying behind a legislative strategy.
The Freedom Caucus was a response to that, and in the midst of their first legislative battle over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, they showed just how different they’d be. Since Republicans took the majority in 2011, the far right wing of the House Republican Conference has been a disparate bunch, unable to clearly articulate a unified set of demands to the leadership.
That all seems to have changed this week.
Although they clearly lost the fight over DHS funding, the Freedom Caucus is beginning to show that it is a force that requires leadership’s attention. They are showing legislative sophistication, defying the perception of a ragtag collection of demagogues many in the Capitol had them pegged as.
Members of the group, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), were able to slow consideration of the Senate’s DHS bill using rarely employed floor tactics — a strategy born of consultations with parliamentary advisers that lasted more than a week, sources said. They successfully worked to whip up opposition to Republican leadership’s plans, dealing Boehner and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) an embarrassing defeat on the House floor.
...
Members are also threatening to stop giving money to the Republican party. After a nonprofit group aligned with Boehner aired attack ads against several of its members, some Freedom Caucus lawmakers say they will stop giving money to the National Republican Congressional Committee — a standard practice that House Republicans are expected to abide by.
“Why would we want to throw money out there when we’re going to have entities attacking our own,” Salmon said, referring to the ads run by the American Action Network. Boehner’s office has said the speaker did not support AAN airing the ads.
...
More: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/rebels-with-a-cause-115806.html
A new group of far-right House Republicans tries to show they’re not just a band of demagogues.
By Jake Sherman and Lauren French - 3/6/15
Sitting in a room on the fourth floor of the Cannon building, sipping soda and beer minutes after they helped defeat a three-week extension of Homeland Security funding, the roughly two dozen House conservatives who in January declared themselves the Freedom Caucus were looking to flex their muscles again.
They made the House Republican leaders an offer — a one-week funding bill, with the option for another two weeks if formal negotiations with the Senate were launched. After breaking for dinner, and scrolling through news on their iPhones and BlackBerrys, the group walked back to the House floor together to watch leadership’s machinations firsthand.
...
Salmon and other members of the Freedom Caucus made clear that their purpose isn’t simply endless debate. For years, the nucleus of conservative thought in the House has been the Republican Study Committee, which holds meetings that are large and ideologically diverse. The group has been risk-averse, hardly ever unifying behind a legislative strategy.
The Freedom Caucus was a response to that, and in the midst of their first legislative battle over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, they showed just how different they’d be. Since Republicans took the majority in 2011, the far right wing of the House Republican Conference has been a disparate bunch, unable to clearly articulate a unified set of demands to the leadership.
That all seems to have changed this week.
Although they clearly lost the fight over DHS funding, the Freedom Caucus is beginning to show that it is a force that requires leadership’s attention. They are showing legislative sophistication, defying the perception of a ragtag collection of demagogues many in the Capitol had them pegged as.
Members of the group, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), were able to slow consideration of the Senate’s DHS bill using rarely employed floor tactics — a strategy born of consultations with parliamentary advisers that lasted more than a week, sources said. They successfully worked to whip up opposition to Republican leadership’s plans, dealing Boehner and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) an embarrassing defeat on the House floor.
...
Members are also threatening to stop giving money to the Republican party. After a nonprofit group aligned with Boehner aired attack ads against several of its members, some Freedom Caucus lawmakers say they will stop giving money to the National Republican Congressional Committee — a standard practice that House Republicans are expected to abide by.
“Why would we want to throw money out there when we’re going to have entities attacking our own,” Salmon said, referring to the ads run by the American Action Network. Boehner’s office has said the speaker did not support AAN airing the ads.
...
More: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/rebels-with-a-cause-115806.html