Political Memo Republicans Facing a Test of Unity By ASHLEY PARKER Published: September 26, 2013 WASHINGTON — As the Congressional showdown over President Obama’s health care law threatens to shut down the government, conservative advocacy groups have emerged as central players — exerting outsize influence, investing tremendous time and resources, and turning the long-shot budget fight into a do-or-die battle that has pitted Republicans against one another. “Once a number of key conservative organizations signed off on it and we decided to go to work, overnight we unleashed a monster,” said L. Brent Bozell III, chairman of ForAmerica, a Tea Party group that has been pushing a “Defund Obamacare” message. “And it’s still out there.” Despite long odds, activist groups spent the summer gearing up. Then, when Congress returned from its August break, the group Tea Party Patriots met lawmakers with a rally outside the Capitol calling for Mr. Obama’s signature health care law to be stripped of financing. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, led the crowd in chants of “Defund it,” while protesters urged the gathered conservative lawmakers to “Shut it down!” Mr. Bozell’s group, which participated in the rally, mobilized its 3.5 million members to make more than 60,000 calls to Republican lawmakers — some of whom they referred to as “Washington Chickens” — imploring them to stand strong in opposing the Affordable Care Act. During the August recess, Heritage Action — the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization — began a nine-city Defund Obamacare tour, hosting town hall meetings urging voters to press their representatives to “take a stand for conservative principles” and deny money for the president’s health care law. Though Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group backed by the Koch brothers, has not adopted the explicit Defund Obamacare mantra, it has weighed in to highlight what it says are the dangers of the Affordable Care Act with a $3 million television advertising campaign running in six states featuring a cancer survivor discussing her concerns about the health care law. The aggressive effort by the advocacy groups put pressure on the House to act and helped push rank-and-file Republicans to the right, forcing Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and his leadership team to link defunding the 2010 health care law directly to the stopgap spending bill to finance the government beyond the end of the month — a back-against-the-wall situation that top Republicans had hoped to avoid. “They both reflected the sentiment and intensified the sentiment and focused it, about wanting to have this particular confrontation,” said Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma. “Their aim is to push as far in the direction that they want us to go as they can, whether that’s politically prudent or not.” The groups, Mr. Cole added, sometimes fail to reflect the political realities on the ground: “It’s hard to see how you completely repeal Obamacare while a guy named Obama is president of the United States.” Organizations leading the Defund Obamacare movement then turned their attention to the Senate. The Club for Growth, one of the groups leading the charge, on Tuesday issued a “Key Vote Alert” to senators, urging them to vote “no” on a measure that would remove the defunding proposal from a stopgap spending bill. “This is just a test of if Republicans are for what they say they’re for, and if they’re willing to fight for what they say they’re for,” said Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth, which plans to “score” how lawmakers vote on the bill. Within the ranks of Republican legislators, the frustration is palpable. House Republican leaders believe that the outside groups are pursuing a strategy that, while politically popular, is tactically unfeasible and could ultimately lead to Republicans being blamed for a government shutdown. “They’re making a lot of money and they like making a lot of money and they like being players, but they are, in fact, jamming the leaders,” said Steven C. LaTourette, a moderate Republican from Ohio who retired from the House last year and was a close ally of Mr. Boehner. “They seize on an issue and they have litmus tests about who’s a good Republican and who’s pure and who’s not pure. They used to do that in Salem, Mass., too, but it’s not fair.” Conservative leaders say they feel the same exasperation — but in reverse. “We’re supposed to give them money, supposed to give them volunteers, supposed to give them votes, and then please be quiet,” Mr. Bozell said. “We’re telling them to put up or shut up, and many in Washington have their knickers in a knot.” In the Senate, the influence of outside groups reached a fever pitch during a closed-door meeting of all Republican senators Tuesday, when several members expressed their bitterness, anger and frustration at what they see as an orchestrated effort by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and outside groups to attack colleagues who disagree with their tactics in the fight against Mr. Obama’s health care law. Many senators are particularly frustrated with the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group that has been running ads — some of which featured Mr. Cruz and Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah — that attack Republicans who are not supporting their Defund Obamacare movement. The group recently called Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, “turncoats.” Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, referring to outside groups generally, said, “I’d be ashamed to have anything to do with them, to be honest with you.” Dan Holler, communications director for Heritage Action, said the possibility of undoing Mr. Obama’s health care law was worth a little intraparty strife. “I think what is particularly frustrating for the leadership this time around is they lost control of the debate,” he said. “Because their members were back home, they couldn’t control what was going on in the grass roots, and that’s a good lesson. You’re not going to rein in the passion of the grass roots.”
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 03:34:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015