Tea Party vs. Old Guard in GOP Rift    05/24 07:15

   A long-simmering feud between establishment Republicans and tea partyers 
broke into full view, with Sen. John McCain accusing younger colleagues of 
overplaying their hands and tempting Democrats to change Senate rules that 
protect the minority party.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- A long-simmering feud between establishment Republicans 
and tea partyers broke into full view, with Sen. John McCain accusing younger 
colleagues of overplaying their hands and tempting Democrats to change Senate 
rules that protect the minority party.

   Tactics for dealing with the government's budget and debt became the latest 
quarrel in a series of skirmishes between McCain ---sometimes joined by other 
traditionalist Republicans ---and tea party champions such as Ted Cruz of 
Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida.

   Those four won Senate seats by defying the party establishment, and they're 
shaking up the tradition-bound Senate with no-compromise, no-apology stands on 
key issues like debt and deficits, government spending and the use of drones in 
the war on terrorism.

   McCain himself has defied Republican orthodoxy at times. But he was the 
party's 2008 presidential nominee, and he now is among those who say a minority 
party will accomplish little in the Senate if it can't find ways to cut deals 
with the majority.

   Cruz, who like Paul is weighing a 2016 presidential bid, renewed his taunts 
of the party establishment in a speech Thursday on the Senate floor. The more 
accommodating Republicans, he said, are in cahoots with Democrats to raise the 
government's borrowing limit by disabling the GOP's ability to mount a 
filibuster threat that could be used to extract spending cuts from Democrats 
and the White House

   Calling it "a dirty little secret," Cruz said Republicans "would very much 
like to cast a symbolic vote against raising the debt ceiling and nonetheless 
to allow our (Democratic) friends on the left side of the aisle to raise the 
debt ceiling."

   Earlier in the day, Lee angered McCain with similar remarks. Lee said 
Republicans should block a House-Senate conference designed to resolve budget 
differences because it might ease the Democrats' effort to raise the 
government's borrowing limit. That rankled the sometimes cantankerous McCain, 
of Arizona. He said the tea partyers' tactics could embolden Democrats who are 
threatening to change Senate rules that now allow the minority party --- or 
even just one senator--- to block various actions.

   "That would be the most disastrous outcome that I could ever imagine," 
McCain said.

   For months, Democrats have complained about Republicans blocking or delaying 
confirmation of top White House nominees, including some federal judges. 
Democrats say the impasse over a budget conference is further evidence of a 
small group of senators in the minority abusing their powers to block actions 
that in the past would have gone forward after a few speeches.

   Supporters of the tea party-backed lawmakers say the ongoing IRS and 
Benghazi controversies have vindicated their sharply partisan, uncompromising 
views. Republicans cite the controversies as examples of Democratic overreach 
and obfuscation.

   This week's budget quarrel follows a high-profile split between tea partyers 
and champions of a big defense program over drone attacks, and an intra-GOP 
disagreement over gun control tactics. It involves an obscure procedural battle 
and arcane rules governing the congressional budget process. Democrats want to 
set up an official House-Senate negotiating committee to iron out the gaping 
differences between the budget plans passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate 
and the Republican-controlled House.

   Cruz, Lee and others say they fear House and Senate leaders will use the 
budget measure to engineer a scenario in which an increase in the government's 
borrowing cap could pass the 100-member Senate by a simple majority instead of 
the 60 votes typically need to overpower the minority on an issue.

   McCain and others, like Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., 
note that House Republicans can block any move by Democratic negotiators to 
engineer a filibuster-free debt limit increase.

   "Isn't it a little bizarre," McCain said Wednesday. "Basically what we are 
saying here on this (Republican) side of the aisle is that we don't trust our 
colleagues on the other side of the Capitol who are in the majority, 
Republicans."

   "Let me be clear. I don't trust the Republicans," Cruz responded. "And I 
don't trust the Democrats. I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don't 
trust the Republicans and the Democrats, because it is leadership in both 
parties that has gotten us in this mess."

   At a tea party rally last month in Texas, Cruz taunted fellow Republicans 
after the Senate rejected a call for background checks on virtually all 
prospective gun buyers.

   Cruz and other tea partyers had threatened to filibuster the gun legislation 
and keep it from coming to the Senate floor for votes. Other Republicans said 
the smarter political move --- which eventually prevailed --- was to let the 
votes take place, and have a few Democrats join Republicans in rejecting the 
wider background checks. Cruz suggested that Republicans who favored proceeding 
with the votes were "a bunch of squishes."

   That earned Cruz a rebuke from the conservative Wall Street Journal 
editorial page --- gleefully retweeted by McCain. "Would it have been right for 
us to not even debate in light of the Newtown massacre?" McCain said.

   Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has joined McCain in urging Republicans to let 
the Senate budget bill go to conference with the House. She said in an 
interview she finds it "baffling that it's a small minority of our caucus that 
is holding up going to conference, when our party, correctly for years, has 
argued that we need to have a budget." Without a House-Senate conference, she 
said, "we can't possibly complete action on it."

   She said GOP conferees "are plenty smart enough to avoid any kind of trap" 
on the debt ceiling question.

   Democrats say the debt ceiling must be raised to pay for expenses already 
incurred by Congress. Failing to raise the ceiling, they say, would trigger a 
catastrophic default on U.S. obligations.

   McCain scuffled with the tea party senators in March after Paul launched a 
filibuster to warn of the threat of unmanned drone attacks against U.S. 
citizens on American soil. McCain referred to newcomers like Paul and Cruz as 
"wacko birds" and said their fears of drone strikes against Americans were 
"ridiculous."

   "It has been suggested that we are 'wacko birds,'" Cruz said Thursday. "I 
will suggest to my friend from Arizona there may be more wacko birds in the 
Senate than is suspected."

   The split between McCain, 76, and next-generation, 40-something potential 
2016 candidates like Paul, Cruz and Rubio also illustrates the broader GOP 
drift toward the right. McCain has spent decades in the Senate, mixing a 
penchant for confrontation with a capacity for bipartisan relationships and 
legislation; the new generation is feistier and more wary of compromise.

   In a Senate floor speech Wednesday, Rubio defended the tradition that allows 
even one senator to bring the chamber to a halt. He feels he can be effective, 
Rubio said, "because in this Senate, even a minority within the minority can 
make a difference."


(KA)