It's officially Civil War time at the GOP.
Check out this poll at Drudge Report. Caution: it is unscientific, but revealing, nonetheless. The question is "John Boehner for House Speaker?" and the response straight from the rabid, uninformed base that is the Tea Party is:
The Republican base is NOT happy with the results of this deal and 85% of the base at DrudgeReport wants him kicked out. But, what's funny is that the last minute rebellion by Eric Cantor yesterday, when Cantor wanted to add some spending cuts but failed, shows that even he doesn't have enough power to rally the troops. So, for Republicans, they aren't Dumb and Dumber but Weak and Weaker.
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The fiscal cliff deal was opposed by powerful conservative groups including
The ultra-conservative Club for Growth stated, "This bill raises taxes immediately with the promise of cutting spending later. Tax rates will go up on marginal income, capital gains, dividends, and even certain estates when a person passes away. But it also delays the sequester for at least two months, breaking the promise made by Congress in 2011 to cut government spending. And, among other things, it includes an unpaid for extension of unemployment benefits."
Heritage Action, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, echoed these concerns, "To be clear, this is a tax increase. ... Heritage Action opposes the kick-the-can tax increase and will include it as a key vote on our legislative scorecard."
FreedomWorks President and CEO Matt Kibbe opposed Senate passage of the deal and wrote to his group's members to call their senator to express their opposition. "I urge you to call your state’s two U.S. Senators and ask them to vote NO on the McConnell-Obama bill to raise taxes and postpone the promised sequester savings. We will count any vote on this proposal as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Freedom Scorecard for 2012."
A fourth group, the Koch brothers-controlled Americans for Prosperity, stopped short of calling for supporters to oppose the deal, but did blast both the deal's contents and the way it was being passed.
By "blasting", they compared the process that passed this Fiscal Cliff deal with the dreaded Obamacare, for a conservative, there can be no greater insult:
"The package is being rushed through at the last minute, possibly voiding the Speaker’s promise that the country would be able to review legislation for three days before the House voted on it. Much like the President’s health care law, it looks like we’ll have to pass the tax bill to find out what’s in it," Americans for Prosperity policy director James Valvo wrote on AFP's blog.
Ouch. That must hurt. Don't forget, that these statements came out BEFORE the deal passed in the House, and 1/3 of the Republicans including Paul Ryan and John Boehner INGNORED THEM. Don't forget also, that these groups hold a lot of muscle for the GOP, so if they are striking against the puppets that they put into power, this is really really bad news for those puppets. Say what you will about the policy, but politically, this is a clear win for Obama, and I think those Republicans in the House and Senate who voted for tax increases can expect to get primaried.
Last but not least is the joker called Grover Norquist.
And now, after the battle, when Grover realized no one was listening to him, he did a complete 180 and pretended that this deal was what he wanted anyway. That is the sign of a man who realizes that he has no power left, but wants to pretend that he does. It's too funny.