A Sweet Part Of 2018's Electoral History Will Be The Mercer Billionaires' War On The Republican Party

Didn't Iggy Pop have a totally awesome song for this?

The Mercers have hired Steve Bannon to run it for them, but the GOP civil war tearing the Republican Parry to shreds could never happen without the profligate spending of two of America's most odious characters, Robert Mercer, the fascist father, and Rebekah Mercer, the equally crazy crackpot daughter. Tuesday, Bannon was in Scottsdale with Kelli Ward, the neo-Nazi GOP challenger to beleaguered Republican Senator Jeff Flake, who's tops on Señor T's hate list.

Bannon was on the warpath against Mitch McConnell again-- Alabama redux-- pledging that the Republican elite are destined to "reap the whirlwind" and "that whirlwind is Kelli Ward." No one could be less deserving on this bounty than Schumer's handpicked corrupt Blue Dog, Kyrsten Sinema, who is also running and is delighted to see the Arizona GOP eviscerate itself. Bannon wasn't lying when he said the "new aristocracy," could not care less about the economic well-being of Americans. He raged that McConnell and other Republican senators disrespect and try to destroy Trump every day.

His remarks were another salvo in the "war" Bannon has declared on the GOP establishment.

“It’s an open revolt, and it should be,” Bannon said before introducing Ward at her campaign’s formal kickoff event at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas.

"These people hold you in total contempt," he said. "When they attack a Donald Trump and a Dr. Kelli Ward, it's not Donald Trump and Kelli Ward that they're trying to shut up. It's you they're trying to shut up... They think you're a group of morons."

This revolt, he said, is moving from Alabama, where the Bannon-supported Roy Moore just defeated incumbent Sen. Luther Strange in a Republican runoff, to Arizona, where the first-term Flake is up for re-election in 2018 after refusing to endorse or vote for Trump last year.

"It's going to be their money versus your money," Bannon said.

Ward, a former state senator from Lake Havasu City, last year unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the primary.

This year, some on the right have been searching for another candidate to take on Flake, who this summer published a book, Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and A Return to Principle, in which he criticized the Republican Party for embracing Trumpism.

  However, early polls have shown Flake to be deeply vulnerable, and with Ward leading him.

Ward will secure the southern border and build a wall, Bannon said, will repeal and replace "Obamacare," and will negotiate Trump-style trade deals that "represent you and the American people."

"We're building a grass-roots army," Bannon said.

McConnell, who spent something like $10,000,000 against Bannon and Roy Moore in Alabama-- only to lose miserably-- isn't giving up. His team says they will fight back against the threat from the Mercer/Bannon extremists. Crooked Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, who is certainly in Bannon's sites, told the media he thinks Bannon is "going to back off on that. He certainly should. He’s a smart guy, and he’s going to realize that’s unfruitful. Where he ought to be spending his time is going after those who are screwing up the country all these years, and they don’t happen to be Republicans... I like Trump. I endorsed him. I think he’ll endorse me."

Hatch, 83, vowed when he ran in 2016 that he wouldn't run again, but he's addicted to the power and prestige of his corrupt life in the DC swamp, making him easy pickings for Bannon and Mercer. McConnell, who isn't up for reelection this cycle, is trying to portray himself as in control and not freaking out. He isn't in control and he is freaking out. Tuesday he pledged to use the power of the purse to back incumbents, the key to his own power.

“We had an experience in 2010 and 2012 nominating candidates in primaries who couldn’t win the general election,” he said, citing past conservative challengers who defeated candidates backed by the party leadership only to lose to Democrats on Election Day.

One famous instance was in 2012 when conservative candidate Richard Mourdock beat longtime GOP incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) before losing what was thought to be a safe Republican seat to Democrat Joe Donnelly.

“Our strategy going forward is to protect our incumbents and to help people get nominated who can actually win elections,” McConnell told reporters after meeting with colleagues over lunch.

It was a signal to colleagues that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to McConnell, would pour money into primaries next year if necessary to protect incumbents.

“The message is that [McConnell is] going to be there and we’re going to be there to back incumbents and candidates that we think are electable,” said Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (S.D.), the third-ranking member of the GOP leadership.

Thune said he expects the NRSC will spend resources in primaries to defend incumbents.

...The committee’s spending on Senate GOP primaries next year will depend on state-by-state coordination limits and how much traction a conservative challenger may be gaining against an incumbent, said a GOP strategist familiar with internal discussions about the 2018 races.

Senate Republicans say they hope McConnell can persuade Trump, with whom he has had a rocky relationship this year, to pressure Bannon to back off loyal incumbents such as Senate Republican Policy Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who are both up for reelection.

Trump acknowledged McConnell’s concerns at a joint press conference with the GOP leader Monday and hinted that he may step in.

“Some of the people that he may be looking at, I’m going to see if we talk him out of that, because frankly, they’re great people,” Trump said Monday of some of the GOP lawmakers in Bannon’s sights.

Senate GOP leaders argue it would be smart for Trump to support the incumbents he will need to vote for tax reform and other items on his agenda.

“I hope he will; I think he will,” Thune said. “They’re the kind of people he’ll need to get his agenda through.”

Barrasso and Fischer, two Republicans on Bannon’s target list, say they will focus on doing their jobs and serving their constituents. Neither said whether they would seek an endorsement from Trump.

But what happens if Miss McConnell opens his purse and there's nothing in it but moths? That's exactly what Mercer and Bannon are trying to make happen. Yesterday Bannon took his circus routine to an event for contemptible billionaires that the Mercers put together in New York. Alex Isenstadt, writing for Politico reported that Bannon and Mercer are persuading big McConnell donors that McConnell is a sinking ship they should abandon before it's too late. Last week Bannon was in Atlanta wooing vile GOP fatcat Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who's spent millions on Senate Republicans and now complains about "the lack of return on his investment." Bannon has been running around the country talking to the overly entitled GOP sugar daddies like Marcus-- under-taxed right-wing multimillionaires and billionaires, including John Childs, Foster Friess, Susan Gore, Sheldon Adelson, Ed Bosarge, Eric Crown, Dan Eberhart and Scott Bessent.

How many Republican givers will sign on with Bannon is an open question; people close to him declined to say whether he had financial commitments. Ideologically and temperamentally, the pugilistic head of Breitbart News isn't exactly a natural fit with the traditional Republican moneyed set. There is also concern in the donor world that having Bannon-aligned outsiders in the Senate Republican Conference would make it harder, not easier, to reach consensus on legislation.

But Marcus is thinking about joining Bannon. An adviser, Steve Hantler, said the billionaire intends to give his party until the end of the year to pass legislation and then would weigh his options.

“Like many donors, if the gridlock continues in Washington, Mr. Marcus will consider new approaches to breaking the gridlock, including those proposed by Steve Bannon and others,” he said.

Asked whether Marcus is open to funding primary challenges to Republican incumbents, Hantler responded: “You will have to draw your own conclusion.”

...There is serious skepticism at the highest levels of the party apparatus that Bannon's donor initiative will succeed. Some contributors who’ve met with him say the outreach is still in its nascent stage. Others have reacted coolly to the idea, reluctant to go after lawmakers just as the tax reform fight is about to begin. Adelson has told people close to him that he’s not interested in funding primary challengers, though Bannon didn't ask him for money during their meeting.

...The party establishment is racing to lock down financial support. On Thursday evening, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will host a fundraising reception and dinner for Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, just two days after Bannon attends a donor event for his primary opponent, Kelli Ward. McConnell, meanwhile, has reached out to Adelson in the past month to gauge his interest in giving to Senate Republicans.

Senior Republicans are also trying to assure givers they hear their frustrations. The NRSC, which has seen its fundraising plummet in recent months, held a retreat in Sea Island, Georgia, over the weekend that drew about 300 lobbyists and bundlers.

Tax reform was front-and-center at a breakfast panel discussion that included Georgia Sen. David Perdue, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner. As the audience piled their plates with eggs and bacon, the senators acknowledged in blunt terms that the political consequences would be dire for Republicans if they don't pass tax legislation, according to two people present.

Bannon declared at a gathering of evangelicals last week that "money doesn't matter anymore" for Republican incumbents trying to fend off insurgent challengers. The message was this: Huge war chests can no longer save incumbents against underfunded outsider candidates with fervid grass-roots support.

But given his activity, Bannon believes his candidates will need some money to take out incumbents.

While Bannon is orchestrating much of the anti-establishment campaign on his own, he has also gotten a boost from the White House. Earlier this month, Nick Ayers, the chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence and a veteran GOP strategist, told a group of Republican National Committee donors they should withhold their financial support to incumbents and instead give to primary challengers if Congress fails to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The message was warmly received by many of the influential donors in the room, including Louis DeJoy. The North Carolina business executive, who has given over $30,000 to the NRSC this year, said he isn’t interested in bankrolling GOP challengers.

But he and other donors are fed up with the failures of the Republican Congress.

"I raise money, and I hear the frustration from everybody," DeJoy said. "Everybody knows the money is drying up."