Do Mainstream Conservatives Still Have Any Clout Left In The GOP?

Earlier in the cycle, crazed right-wing extremist Richard Mourdock vanquished mainstream Republican veteran Richard Lugar, something that would have endangered the GOP's ability to win the Indiana Senate seat if the Democratic Party bosses hadn't conspired to insert hopelessly reactionary Blue Dog Joe Donnelly as their nominee. Donnelly's anti-Choice, anti-gay, anti-healthcare stance will depress the Democratic turnout sufficiently enough to allow a win by a crackpot like Mourdock. Lugar would have been a far better choice than either Mourdock or Donnelly.

Last night Texas Republicans, with a lot of pushing from the national right-wing freakshow, chose another die-hard extremist, Ted Cruz, instead of a mainstream (for Texas) conservative, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, as the state's next senator. (Big win for the extremists but, ironically, Cruz may help change this but, as of now, there is no statewide Democratic Party in Texas worth talking about.)

Romney may be able to keep the extremists like Palin and Bachmann off the prime time stage at the GOP Convention in Tampa, but mainstream conservatives in the House are getting fed up that Boehner and Cantor have been catering exclusively to the sociopaths and brain-dead ideologues in the caucus, imbeciles, for the most part, who take their cues exclusively from Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Fox News and whichever Ayn Rand book Paul Ryan has sent them.

I think the last time I mentioned Republican Congressman Steve LaTourette (OH) was in a June post about how some labor unions are more supportive of Republicans than of Democrats. It may be hard to believe but so far this cycle, the AFL-CIO Building Trades unions have spent more supporting House Republicans than on House Democrats. They are working tirelessly to make sure that John Boehner and Eric Cantor control the agenda next year-- an agenda that seeks to enslave their members. You think I'm exaggerating? The numbers don't lie. They spent $105,500 on Republican candidates and $99,625 on Democrats so far this cycle. Their biggest single recipients so far have been:

Steven LaTourette (R-OH)- $8,000
Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)- $7,500
Jon Runyan (R-NJ)- $6,000
John Garamendi (D-CA)- $5,000
Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)- $4,500

Two of those bets aren't going to pay off for the AFL-CIO next year. Two of their GOP buddies, McCotter-- caught up in an election fraud scandal-- and LaTourette, are retiring from Congress. Monday, LaTourette let it be known that he's sick and tired of Boehner and Cantor giving mainstream conservatives the short end of the stick and favoring extremists. The stick that broke the camel's back may have been Boehner's refusal to give him a committee assignment he wanted but "high-profile breaks with his party have included opposing the TARP bank rescue program and backing extended unemployment benefits during the recession," have labeled him a bit of a rebel, an awkward position for the party that proudly bills itself a mainstay of the Establishment.

Tuesday morning he called a press conference and explained why he's retiring:

“I have reached the conclusion that the atmosphere today and the reality that exists in the House of Representatives no longer encourages the finding of common ground,” he said.

LaTourette told reporters that to rise in party ranks, politicians must now hand over “your wallet and your voting card” to party extremes and he was uninterested.

...He cited two specific issues that contributed to his decision-- Congress’s struggle in passing a new highway funding bill and its failure to reach a bipartisan deficit reduction deal.

Long an advocate of increased infrastructure spending, LaTourette said he was ”horribly disappointed” in the debate over the transportation funding bill, calling it an “embarrassment” to the institution that a bipartisan bill approved by the Senate was not handily approved in the House.

Also Monday, Boehner got a gut kick from upstate New York freshman Richard Hanna, another mainstream conservative. He went to the Syracuse Post-Standard and let it all hang out, accusing Boehner and Cantor of being "too willing to accommodate" extremists inside the GOP House caucus.

“I have to say that I’m frustrated by how much we-- I mean the Republican Party-- are willing to give deferential treatment to our extremes in this moment in history,” he told The Post-Standard editorial board.

Hanna, R-Barneveld, pointed specifically to Michele Bachmann of Minnesota-- particularly her suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin be investigated to see if she has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood that would compromise her loyalty.

Hanna, a businessman who defeated Democratic incumbent Michael Arcuri two years ago, said his first term in Congress left him “sad in a lot of ways” because of the growing divisiveness on both sides of the aisle.

“We render ourselves incapable of governing when all we do is take severe sides...” he said. “If all people do is go down there and join a team, and the team is invested in winning and you have something that looks very similar to the shirts and the skins, there’s not a lot of value there.”

While he blamed the dysfunction on both sides, he said he feels more bitterness coming from the Republican caucus than from the Democrats.

“I would say that the friends I have in the Democratic Party I find ... much more congenial-- a little less anger,” he said.