Well, bless their little hearts. The House Freedom Caucus maniacs have decided that they'll play nice with their minority leadership now in order to "crush Democrats at the polls next year." Because they think that's a thing that will happen.
Their plan is to teach the hapless Republican leadership the same tactics the maniacs used against them for the past eight years, to use against House Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats. They picked a really good thing to start with: protesting a non-binding resolution brought by the Democrats denouncing government shutdowns. That's right, they led 163 Republicans to actually endorse government shutdowns, rejecting the idea that "Government shutdowns are detrimental to the Nation and should not occur."
"I can come up with all kinds of creative ways to slow down the floor progress. Those creative ways are being used in a unified way in the minority," brags head maniac Rep. Mark Meadows. They can't do anything about legislation coming to the floor, he says, "but you still have a plethora of options in the toolbox."
There is one really glaring problem for them in this plan, though. It worked when Republicans had a majority because, without the maniacs' votes, they couldn't pass things. Pelosi has 235 Democrats. There is no danger of 20 of them deciding to break ranks on any Democratic priority that comes to the floor. The most the maniacs’ tactics can do is annoy Democrats. Like little teeny-tiny gnats buzzing around. And they can slow stuff down. The kind of stuff that made Democrats so popular in 2018 that they won the House in a great big beautiful wave. So that should play well for Republicans in 2020.
The real influence they have, with the Russian asset in the White House, can lead to more national disasters like government shutdowns. Because that's going to play so well electorally in 2020. But there is one thing about this new partnership: It's just one more Freedom Caucus thumb in the eye of the now-departed Paul Ryan. That's always appreciated.