Arizona GOP smacks down tea party resolution to censor Sen. McCain

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Arizona Republicans showed leadership over the weekend when they smacked down a resolution censoring U.S. Senator John McCain. As one Arizona Republican noted on Facebook, “Sanity wins again, and lunatics walked out like always as sore losers.”

It was tea party-Libertarian versus Republicans, again:

It was a tough weekend for Tyler Bowyer and his boss, AJ LaFaro.

One week after LaFaro and Bowyer disregarded their own bylaws in order to pursue the same destructive, divisive tactics that have plagued the MCRC for over a decade, order was restored at the Arizona Republican Party Mandatory meeting on Saturday.

This was a completely different meeting from last Saturday, when chaos reigned, bylaws were ignored and a “kangaroo court” removed two hard working officers from the executive committee, a blatantly illegal “non-endorsement” of Senator McCain was passed and botched processes ruled the day.

Indeed, this last weekend’s State meeting was a welcome relief and a sign that the Republican Party does indeed possess the leadership and unity to win Republican elections in Arizona.

In Arizona, it’s not the first time Libertarian tea partiers have gone after McCain — they were smacked down in the past, too. The Arizona meeting ended with cheers from the pro-McCain forces:

Centrist House members flex muscle, pass Export-Import Bank reauthoriation

By Lynn R. Mitchell

On Tuesday evening, centrist members of the U.S. House flexed some muscle and overwhelmingly cast a bipartisan vote of 313-118 to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank (see WSJ’s House votes to reauthorize U.S. Import-Export Bank). Its charter had lapsed on July 15, 2015, after tea party members had targeted it, calling it “corporate cronyism.”

Immediately after the vote, Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA 6th CD) posted on Facebook:

Eric Cantor NYT op-ed: ‘The GOP, after John Boehner’

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Former Virginia Congressman and Majority Leader Eric Cantor wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times (see Eric Cantor: The GOP, After John Boehner) about U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s decision Friday to step down at the end of October, giving up not only the speaker role but also his congressional seat:

Richmond, Va. — LIKE so many others, I was stunned by Speaker John A. Boehner’s announcement on Friday that he would step down at the end of October. For nearly six years — first as Republican whip and then as majority leader — I met with John on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis as we worked to lead the House Republican Conference. It is no secret that we had different styles and personalities, but he was always selfless, a man who put the nation, his constituents, the House of Representatives and the party before himself.

Friday was another selfless act. By stepping down amid the tumult in the House conference, he has given my former colleagues in the House, fellow members of the Republican Party and the broader conservative movement a chance to demonstrate to the American people that we are prepared to govern and worthy of their trust.

But the next part of his op-ed speaks volumes, even above the clamor of those celebrating Boehner’s decision to leave:

Examining sanctuary city and immigrant crime issues

By Daniel P. Cortez

Four unarmed Marines and one sailor were brutally murdered recently in Tennessee. That hits home to this retired leatherneck and thousands of other Stafford citizens serving at Quantico or other nearby military bases.  Parents with children in service cringed hearing the tragic news that it was committed by a cowardly, demented American Muslim who spent seven months in Jordan and may have been radicalized.

And the Hispanic community remain outraged at the horrific crime committed by the undocumented Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez who admitted taking the life of Katherine Steinle in San Francisco.  Sanchez had been deported five times with seven felony convictions.

Updating BD’s Big Line prediction for Sen-24

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Bearing Drift’s “Big Line” predictions have not been updated since March 5, 2015, so I’m going to update Senate District 24. Interestingly, their editorial board got it wrong.

Kurt Michael for Wayne District supervisor?

Dr. Kurt Michael and his family. Election Day 2011.

By Lynn R. Mitchell

The grape vine is working overtime these days with phone calls and inquiries from folks asking if Dr. Kurt Michael is running for Wayne District supervisor in Augusta County. He was approached weeks ago and asked to please run for the position that he had almost won four years ago.

In 2011, then-chairman of the Augusta County GOP Bill Shirley would not even talk with Kurt about seeking the Republican nomination and, as a result, he had to run as an Independent candidate. Never mind that he had been active in the Republican Party for over 20 years and had served as GOP chairman in Fairfax City while in his 20s, and as Augusta County chairman from 2002-08. Shirley recruited a candidate who had not been involved with the Republican Party before running for supervisor. Kurt lost on election day to voters who walked in and asked, “Who is the Republican candidate?” without knowing either one.

10 Reasons Why Glenn Beck Left The Republican Party

By Gregg Hilton
Guest Post

Glenn Beck, the conservative/libertarian radio host, announced today that he is no longer a member of the Republican Party. He joins his colleague at The Blaze, Dana Loesch, who has also left the GOP.

Beck said, “I’ve made my decision –- I’m out. I’m out of the Republican Party. I am not a Republican; I will not give a dime to the Republican Party. I’m out. I highly recommend –- run from the Republican Party. They are not good.”

“They’re torpedoing the Constitution and they’re doing it knowingly. … So I’m done with them,” Beck continued. “Four years ago, I was with them. Four years ago, I said work from the inside: let’s change it. Let’s get new guys in there. It’s too late.”

Beck achieved national fame on Fox News and launched his own news site, TheBlaze, in 2011.

The 10 reasons Beck left the GOP are:

Is It Better To Elect A Liberal Democrat Over A Moderate Republican?

By Gregg Hilton
Guest Post

Flashback: The 2010 Delaware U.S. Senate Race

Erick Erickson of Red State has once again written his efforts in one of the top Tea Party triumphs of 2010. Five years later he is still proud of his role.

Erickson writes, “In Delaware, many conservative, myself included, made the conscious decision that it would be far better to have the Democrat win than Rep. Mike Castle because of what Castle would do whispering in the ears of Republican leaders. Few of us thought Christine O’Donnell could win. But Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint get particular blame for their endorsements.”

O’Donnell received tremendous national attention that year and her nomination changed the focus away from the economy and Obamacare. Reporters instead wrote about O’Donnell’s opposition to pre-marital sex, masturbation and pornography, and her links to witchcraft. After winning the nomination on September 15th, she hid from the media for three weeks.

O’Donnell claimed to have a master’s degree during her first campaign when she did not have a college degree. She had no job during the five preceding years, and had been fired by a conservative organization.

The mystery man challenging Del. Chris Head

By Matt Colt Hall
Guest Post

Who is the mystery primary challenger in Virginia’s House District 17?

I received an email and text from a good friend that said Republican Delegate Chris Head was getting a primary challenger. My first thought was how could someone primary my delegate, and who was that person?

Delegate Christopher Head was originally elected to the House of Delegates in 2011, beating his Democratic opponent Frieda Cathcart 65 percent to 34 percent, and then Delegate Head beat Cathcart a second time in 2013, 67 percent to 32 percent.  He currently sits on the House Finance Committee; House Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee; and House Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee. Delegate Head is the chairman of the bi-partisan Virginia House of Delegates Business Development Commission.

Comstock attacks are over the top

By Matt Colt Hall
Guest Post

As a young Republican, I have felt frustration while watching the Virginia Republican Party move farther to the right. That would be fine except we have completely thrown tactics and the ability to govern out the window.

Sadly, the Libertarian-tea party blog of Northern Virginia known as the Bull Elephant continues to demonize rational Republicans almost every day but on Tuesday they reached a whole new level of hatred and vitriol. Their columnist Jeanine Martin wrote a piece entitled, “Barbara Comstock votes with Democrats to fund DHS through August.” I don’t want to give Ms. Martin’s post the publicity it so desperately wants but one section was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. It read:

“If Comstock continues down the path of voting with democrats, and cozying up to Eric Cantor and John Boehner, Republicans in the 10th district will be able to choose her replacement in a convention in 2016.”

As my hero and the greatest president once said, “There you go again.”

Peter Wehner: ‘Conservatives in name only’

By Lynn R. Mitchell

An op-ed in the New York Times scratches its head at the battle within the Republican Party. Peter Wehner,  a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who served in the last three Republican administrations, questions in his piece those Republican representatives who turned on House Speaker John Boehner after his clear-cut leadership led the party to a victory unseen since the 1920s (see Conservatives In Name Only):

Last week the Republican Party’s divisions were on display, when Speaker of the House John A. Boehner — who helped his party gain its largest majority since the Truman administration — faced an uprising. The revolt was led by conservatives against a man whose voting record is unquestionably conservative. It was another indication that the tension on the right these days is not about policy or ideology but tone and temperament.

Think about that. The largest Republican majority in the House of Representatives since the Great Depression. He continues:

The right-of-center war on John Boehner

By Lynn R. Mitchell

The war on John Boehner began before the November elections and is continuing as we head into the new Congress. The local Republican Party units, aligned with the tea party — indeed, the Augusta County unit chair who is also the State Central member is married to the director of the Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots — have been urging Boehner’s removal for months, echoing the message of other far right-of-center voices who are more impressed by Senator Ted Cruz’s shut-down-the-government efforts than the pragmatic leadership of less showy representatives.

The propaganda war of words against Jeb Bush – updated

Governor Jeb Bush

By Lynn R. Mitchell

It is all becoming clear: some right-of-center people who are determined to undermine Governor Jeb Bush as a serious contender for the GOP presidential nomination have taken to rewriting history and labeling a strong conservative leader as something he’s not. A tea party member said to me on Facebook that Jeb Bush is a “fascist and crony socialist.” That is so ridiculous as to be laughable.

Controversial Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio wrote in the same thread, “Give me a break. Jeb Bush makes vomit smell nice by comparison” (see screen shot below).

They did it to Bill Bolling, now they’re doing it to Jeb Bush

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Jeb Bush. Not conservative enough. Try as I might, it remains impossible to see these two concepts as even remotely related. John Ellis Bush, the second son of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Bush, who during his first run for Florida governor in 1994 cheerfully called himself a head-banging conservative, a hang-’em-by-the-neck conservative … who during his second run for Florida governor in 1998 had to craft for himself a more compassionate persona so as not to scare off independent voters … that Jeb Bush has come to be viewed with suspicion by the uber-conservative, Tea Party wing of his Republican Party?

They did it to former Virginia Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling who was considered by some to be too conservative when he ran for lieutenant governor in 2005 only to turn around a few years later and be labeled not conservative enough by the newly-arrived “uber-conservative, Tea Party wing” of the Republican Party, as Politico calls it. Reinventing, that is (see Reinventing Jeb Bush: How America misremembers the family’s true conservative).

Guest post: ‘3 things the hard right and tea party really need to understand about Republicans’

By Becky Boydstun
Guest Post

There are three things the hard right and tea party really need to understand about the Republicans, explained by a proud  generational member of the Grand Old Party.

1. We are not “The Establishment” or “RINOs,” and you are not “The Base.”  We are THE Republican Party founded in 1854.  The Tea Party is a MOVEMENT that began inside our party sometime between 2007-2009, and if anyone must be referred to as a “RINO,” it’s the members of this movement, because they seemingly have a strong dislike for most of what occurs within our party.