Is Your GOP Member Representing You or John Boehner?

[Rapunzel]

http://www.redstate.com/diary/dhorowitz3/2014/02/24/gop-member-representing-john-boehner/

Is Your GOP Member Representing You or John Boehner?
Exposing Boehner Bootlickers from Coast-to-Coast

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  February 24th, 2014 at 08:50 AM 

Ask yourself this question: is there any Democrat that represents a solid blue congressional district who is not fully committed to advancing the progressive agenda?  Is there any Democrat from deep blue territory who rubber stamps the conservative agenda?

Of course not.  Democrats utilize the liberal areas of the country to promote their beliefs.

Yet, there are dozens of Republicans who hail from conservative districts but have made a commitment to lick the boots of Speaker John Boehner and leadership rather than fight for their constituents.  They not only waste their seats with votes that forward liberal policies but they serve as a malignant force on the rest of the conference.  Ironically, even some sitting House members running for Senate are distancing themselves from Boehner and leadership.

We will never change Washington unless we have a Republican Party as committed to fighting for our causes as the Democrat Party is for theirs.  The GOP will never fill that vacuum as long as the current leaders are in power – whether in the minority or majority.

In order to change leadership we need to start with replacing their bootlickers, especially those who waste good districts.  As Erick noted the other day, this is not about picking primary battles over defeating Democrats in the general election; this is about winning back control of government with the right Republicans so we don’t repeat the same failed cycle of politics.

Surprisingly, a large percentage of Senate Republicans up for reelection this cycle have competitive primaries – in varying degrees. However, few House incumbents have challengers that have raised even minimal sums of money to run an effective campaign.  This must change in the coming years if we ever hope to retake the GOP from the failed establishment.

To that end, every week we’ll be highlighting a new establishment member who is ripe for replacement.  It might take more than one election cycle to defeat them, but we must begin exposing their lack of commitment to conservative values and their double game of talking the conservative talk at home and serving as a conduit for Boehner and the establishment in D.C.

This member was elected during the 2010 year of the Tea Party.  Like most Republicans elected that year, people automatically assumed that she was a conservative who would go up to Washington to change the status quo.  But in short order, she made it her goal to become one of the loudest and proudest supporters of the failed GOP leadership.  The New York Times even did a profile on her in 2011 portraying her as the biggest defender of leadership from the class of 2010.

During the 2010 election, Republicans made it clear that if they won back the House they would stop funding for Obamacare in budget bills and stop increasing the debt.  Yet, this member attacked other conservative freshmen for failing to betray their pledge and support raising the debt ceiling. She quickly became the establishment attack dog against the conservative members.  In 2012, she openly admitted that Boehner was her boss, and as such, she had no intention of “causing problems.”

Despite being one of the most passionate advocates of raising the debt ceiling, she took the unprincipled way out a few weeks ago and voted against the bill because it already had enough Democrat votes to pass.  Yet, she has been one of the leading fighters against conservative grassroots groups opposing the debt ceiling increase.  She is so disconnected from the grassroots back home – the same people who got her elected – that she rarely shows up in much of the district or communicates with local activists.

When her state decisively voted to preserve the definition of marriage, she publicly opposed the measure.

While her fellow North Carolinian, Rep. Mark Meadows was fighting to defund Obamacare, she called the effort “an economic disaster.”  This, despite her strong support for the effort early on in 2011 – before she became a creature of Washington.

As she continues to vote for more spending, debt, and funding Obamacare, she has made amnesty her most important issue.  There is probably no other Republican in the House who is a more dedicated and passionate supporter of open borders.

Her central North Carolina district is comprised of mainly staunch conservative counties.  Her name is Renee Ellmers and she represents North Carolina’s Second district.  Are we prepared to waste this seat for another 20 years?

[Rapunzel]

http://www.redstate.com/2014/03/04/boehners-bootlickers-continued-indiana-trio/

Boehner’s Bootlickers Continued: The Indiana Trio

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 4th, 2014 at 11:34 AM 

This is a continuation of our series highlighting members who hail from red districts, yet represent the priorities of House Speaker John Boehner and leadership instead of conservatives. Part 1can be viewed here.

Indiana is home to three new members of Congress who rode a conservative wave to Congress in 2010 and 2012, yet they have chosen to represent Boehner and the boys instead of fulfilling their campaign promises.  We can choose to reelect these minions for the establishment over the next 20 years or we can utilize these heartland districts to find grassroots leaders.  It is our choice to make.

Congressman Larry Bucshon was swept into the House in his Evansville-based 8th congressional district amidst the Tea Party insurrection in 2010.  Yet, Bucshon immediately became a member of the pro-abortion, big labor-backed Republican Mainstreet Partnership.

During his first term in Congress, Bucshon voted down-the-line with leadership, earning a 64% score from Heritage Action.  Despite campaigning on the promise of a balanced budget and cutting spending, he voted to raise the debt ceiling and against efforts by RSC members to cut spending.

In 2012, he still ran as a Tea Party member, noting that “his views are right in line with the majority of Tea Party members.”  Yet, he supports federal legislation limiting scope of practice for alternative healthcare providers, such as optometrists and chiropractors – the antitheses of free market healthcare reforms advocated by the Tea Party.

Last year, Bucshon introduced a bill overriding state regulations of these healthcare providers, forcing them to disclose all their licensing and qualifications in advertising, while granting broad authority to the Federal Trade Commission to regulate and penalize offenders.  When we start pushing for free market healthcare reforms in the future, we don’t need more members who will serve as tools for the American Medical Association (AMA).

On paper, Republicans retained control of the conservative Marion-based 5th district of Indiana.  Dan Burton retired and a Republican did win the seat.  But that is where the similarities end.  With only 30% of the vote, Susan Brooks, the most liberal candidate in a crowded field, slipped into Congress and quickly became a water-carrier for leadership.

Brooks immediately became a member of the pro-abortion, big labor-backed Republican Mainstreet Partnership.  She has voted against most attempts to roll back spending and in support of bloated bills to increase spending, earning her a 58% from Heritage Action.

More recently, she has supported the Ryan-Murray bill, the omnibus, farm bill, and the bill in October funding Obamacare and raising the debt ceiling.  At the time, she echoed Obama’s fallacious talking point about default almost verbatim:

“In simple terms, hitting our debt ceiling means not having enough money to pay all of our bills such as Social Security payments, Medicare and Medicaid payments, Treasury bonds and interest payments on our debt. When you cannot pay your credit card bill your credit rating is downgraded, so hitting the debt ceiling could also mean the nation’s credit is downgraded for the second time in three years.”

Yet, despite her bold declaration about default, she didn’t have the moxie to vote for the latest debt ceiling suspension last month, presumably, because leadership had the votes to pass it with Democrat support.

Like most of Boehner’s bootlickers, Brooks is a big supporter of amnesty, and even had the temerity to praise the Gang of 8 bill – the most egregious piece of legislation since Obamacare.  She will clearly be part of any effort to push amnesty thought the House in the coming months and years.

Although Brooks was not in Congress to vote for the bailouts, she has confirmed her support for bailing out Chrysler.  Brooks is also a big proponent of limiting private gun sales.

She should get some credit for not pretending to be conservative or playing the Washington double-game.  She is quite open about her lack of conservative beliefs.  The question is if Republicans are going to continue electing a Democrat-lite from Indiana’s 5th District.

Todd Young, who represents south-central and southeastern Indiana in the 9th District, is another one of those 2010 freshmen who ran on a Tea Party platform. Yet, he immediately became a member of the pro-abortion, big labor-backed Republican Mainstreet Partnership.  He votes down-the-line with leadership, earning him a 59% from Heritage Action.

If there is a time when leadership needs a rank-and-file member to carry their water, Young will be one of the first and most alacritous in line.  After voting to suspend the debt ceiling yet again in October, Young sponsored a vacuous non-binding resolution to disapprove the debt ceiling increase.  The resolution was just ceremonial thanks to Young’s previous vote, but much like Senator Mitch McConnell, he sent out a press release dishonestly giving the impression that he was fighting Obama on the debt, while obfuscating his previous consequential vote.

And remember, not all Republicans are created equal when it comes to taxes.  Young is a co-sponsor of the internet sales tax, a harmful proposal that is gaining steam with the K Street crowd.

With Boehner announcing his intention to run for another term as Speaker, and given the fact that amnesty will be his biggest priority, do we need to waste conservative seats on members who will rubber stamp his agenda?

[jmyrlefuller]

Yet, there are dozens of Republicans who hail from conservative districts but have made a commitment to lick the boots of Speaker John Boehner and leadership rather than fight for their constituents.

Almost literally.

I know my local congressman got himself a plum committee assignment by walking Boehner's dog four times a week.

[Rapunzel]

http://www.redstate.com/2014/03/11/boehners-bootlickers-continued-flipper/

Boehner’s Bootlickers Continued: The Flipper

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 11th, 2014 at 10:54 AM

This is a continuation of our series highlighting members who hail from red districts, yet represent the priorities of House Speaker John Boehner and leadership instead of conservatives. Part 1 can be viewed here and part 2 here.

Like most new candidates during the 2010 election cycle, this member ran on a Tea Party platform.  He kicked off his campaign in August 2009 promising it to be “the first day we walk toward reclaiming conservative values.”  Yet, within a few months of assuming power, Crawford was already proud to be in Boehner’s “inner circle,” gushing over how the Speaker gave him “a wink and a nod, and a thumbs-up as validation.”

To be fair, there were already some red flags with this member while he was running for office in 2010.  During the primary, he campaigned on allowing younger workers to utilize private accounts for Social Security benefits.  But several months later, he affirmed his complete opposition to any privatization and also said he opposed raising the retirement age.

With regard to taxes, he told activists at that same GOP county dinner, in March 2010, that the flat tax was a “good idea.”  Yet, when challenged by his Democrat opponent in this conservative district, he ran from the idea and said he was only tantalized by the flat tax as an interesting idea “just like unicorns.”  However, he still committed to opposing all tax increases.  His campaign staffer reiterated that he was “against tax increases. It’s that simple. He doesn’t support anything that is going to take more money out of the pockets of our families.”  To that end, he signed the official tax pledge for candidates.

His flimsy pledge didn’t last too long.  In March 2012, Crawford unilaterally proposed a 2.5% surtax on millionaires under the absurd notion that if Republicans agree to massive tax increases, Democrats will reciprocate with a commensurate degree of spending cuts.  He bought into the Democrat notion that we need a “balanced approach” to a budget agreement – one that includes tax increases and spending cuts.  Yet, he only supported tax hikes.  During his first term, he supported every bloated budget bill, CR, and debt ceiling increase – even though he once said he was “absolutely opposed to” any increase.  Despite being a member of the RSC, he opposed every spending cut proposed by members of that group, earning him a 53% from Heritage Action.

While running for Congress, this member also signed the Citizens Against Government Waste “no pork” pledge.  Once he sat in the comfy chair of his Longworth office, his attitude changed.  “Constituents expect their congressman to bring back as many federal dollars as they can.  I’m only one voice in a very large geographic area. We’ve kind of hit a brick wall without the ability to earmark projects.”

During his few years in the House, this member has championed federal involvement in every aspect of the private sector.  As a member of the Agriculture Committee, he has blocked every attempt to empower states and the individual in farming.  As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he has opposed any attempt to vest the states with the power and revenue to chart their own course on transportation.  He has opposed all efforts to cut Department of Energy green social engineering and was a co-sponsor of the bill to further subsidize wind energy.

The district is Arkansas’s First and the member is Rick Crawford.  We can continue acculturating conservative districts to big government politicians or we can begin utilizing these parts of the country to elect conservatives.  Which one is it going to be?

[Howie66]

Almost literally.

I know my local congressman got himself a plum committee assignment by walking Boehner's dog four times a week.

I think that my Congresspuke Pete Olson (TX-22) genuflects to Boehner. If he does anything at all. I'm not even sure if the guy has a pulse, to be honest.