Obviously, the Tea Party challenge of Matt Bevin to Mitch McConnell is getting all the attention right now, especially after Jesse Benton's "Mitch is a stinky poo-poo" comments earlier this week. But let's not forget that the Tea Party is none too happy with the GOP's #2 man in the Senate either. Yes, even John Cornyn is in the Tea Party's crosshairs. As the Huffington Post notes, this seems the height of madness:
As a person who has been alive since at least 2008, it's hard to imagine how you get to a point where two-term Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is insufficiently conservative for the conservative base. After all, in 2010, Cornyn was in an eight-way tie for first in National Journal's rankings of the "Most Conservative Members of Congress," and the American Conservative Union lauds him as an "ACU Conservative." As near as I can tell, the last person to contend that Cornyn wasn't up to snuff was his 2008 primary opponent, Larry SECEDE Kilgore -- who, yes, literally changed his middle name to "SECEDE" in all capital letters, because he is way, way into the idea of Texas seceding.
But no, despite all that, Cornyn is still not good enough for the Tea Party. They want someone new. And guess who they want to replace him? Per the National Review:
Louie Gohmert for Senate? That’s what a number of Texas tea-party activists are hoping for. They’re not happy with Senator John Cornyn, and Katrina Pierson, who serves on the Texas Tea Party Caucus Advisory Board, tells me she’s heard from a number of activists pushing for the outspoken East Texas congressman to challenge the senator.
And JoAnn Fleming, the executive director of East Texas–based Grassroots America We The People, says she’s hearing the same thing. She knows Gohmert personally and says she’s had numerous activists tell her she should ask the congressman to run.
“I’ve had people ask me to ask him,” she says. “That hasn’t diminished.”
Yes, you heard right. They want the stupidest member of Congress to rid them of Cornyn. And there's a big reason why:
Pierson and Fleming both told me that the grassroots activists they’re hearing from have numerous concerns with Cornyn’s record, but they’re especially frustrated that he withdrew support for Senator Mike Lee’s efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act in this fall’s continuing resolution. Fleming says that Cornyn’s opposition to Lee’s efforts will lose him votes in a potential primary.
The amount of damage Lee, Ted Cruz, Marc "I Want My Bottle!" Rubio and their ilk are causing to their own party with their inane "defund Obamacare or we shut it all down" crusade is truly something to behold. But that's not all:
Fleming also argues that this irritation is nothing new; she saw serious grassroots frustration with the senator during his tenure as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “This didn’t just start with the Mike Lee letter, this has been going on for quite some time,” she says.
The big meanie didn't like our candidates! He must be punished!
But it appears the Tea Party needs to work on its sales pitch better, because their would-be Cornyn Slayer doesn't seem too keen to do it:
But Gohmert insisted he was not planning to run for Senate — nor, he added for good measure, for president, though he said supporters had urged him to consider both.
“Before I dive in” to a race, Gohmert said, “I need to feel it in my heart. I don’t feel it in my heart right now.”
He added, “It’s not on my radar."
President? Well, if Michelle Bachman's already done it and if his contender for dumbest member of the House Steve King is
apparently considering it, why not Gomer?
But no Senate race seems to be in the cards right now, especially if his fundraising says anything:
Gohmert’s fundraising for the second quarter suggests the same: He brought in $61,115, and ended the quarter with less than $174,000 in cash on hand.
“That doesn’t seem like someone who’s ramping up for a statewide race,” a Senate Republican aide said Monday.
Cornyn, for his part, raised roughly $2.3 million in the second quarter, and had approximately $5.9 million cash on hand.
So no Gohmert challenge to Cornyn yet. But according to the
Review, it's not over:
But that doesn’t seem to have dampened the hopes of Texan tea partiers.
No, fanatics never do quit. Which means Cornyn still has to watch his back. And that means, inconceivably, the GOP could be facing an election cycle where both their Senate Leader and Senate Whip are in danger of being booted out in their primaries.
Isn't it fun when Republicans eat their own?