If you're wondering why the Drunk Weepy Oompa-Loompa and the rest of the House GOP "leadership" seems to be grabbing at any hairbrained scheme they can think of, it may be because they may not have much longer to play with their shutdown toy. Why? Because as the Hill reports, the list of House Republicans who endorse a clean CR continues to grow:
A handful of Republicans in the lower chamber on Tuesday embraced a “clean” continuing resolution (CR): Reps. Pat Meehan (Pa.), Jon Runyan (N.J.), Scott Rigell (Va.), Mike Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Frank Wolf (Va.).
They joined Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and GOP New York Reps. Pete King and Michael Grimm, who endorsed a clean CR earlier this week.
More:
In a Tweet, Meehan stated, “I came to DC to fix gov't, not shut it down. It’s time for House to vote for a clean, short-term funding bill to bring Senate to the table.”
Similarly, Rigell wrote on Twitter, “We fought the good fight. Time for a clean CR.”
Wolf agrees with Rigell, a Wolf aide told The Hill. In a statement on the House floor Tuesday, Wolf said, “This is bad for America. It is bad for America. Enough is enough. It’s time to be leaders. It’s time to govern. Open up the government.”
A Fitzpatrick aide said the Pennsylvania Republican would support a clean CR. Runyan told the Burlington County Times he would vote yes on such a measure.
Other centrist Republicans, including Rep. Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), are getting antsy with their leaders.
I can't help but notice that a lot of these are blue state House Reps who would face the brunt of the expected blowback on the GOP from this, whether representing a district that depends heavily on federal spending (Rigell) or in a state with the dead weight of an unpopular governor already on their shoulders (Dent, Meehan, Fitzpatrick).
And here's another one:
Rep. Dennis Ross of Florida told National Journal, “Ultimately [Obamacare's] going to happen, in my opinion. We have voted 41 times to defund it or get rid of it. If my people back home say: Oh my gosh you voted to fund Obamacare, so be it. We’ve lost this battle. We need to move on to the next one.”
If the number keeps growing like this, how much longer can Boner keep it from a floor vote? Time will tell.