Tea Party Group Will Primary 87 Republican “Traitors”

[xchrom]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/tea-party-group-will-primary-87-republican-traitors



WASHINGTON — A tea party group has launched a campaign to support primary challenges against all 87 Republicans who voted for the deal in late October to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.

The Tea Party Leadership Fund, a PAC affiliated with the group TheTeaParty.net, began a fundraising push — dubbed the “Primaries for Traitors Fund” — shortly after the shutdown deal passed in the House, and they are now ramping up efforts to find “credible candidates” in each of the districts, said the fund’s treasurer, Dan Backer.

“From our perspective, we see this as a signature vote. You can’t be a conservative and vote to raise the debt ceiling,” Backer said. “I recognize there are some places where voters may actually think that was the right vote. And there may be places where you have an incumbent who wins with 90% of the vote every time and there’s not a credible challenger. I recognize that, but we’re certainly going to do our best.”

Backer says the group has honed in on a few specific members to start: Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, New York Rep. Peter King, North Carolina Rep. Robert Pittenger, Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany, and most importantly, Backer said, House Speaker John Boehner in Ohio.

[DetlefK]

1. Please proceed...

[kelliekat44]

17. Like your comment. Yes, let them spend their money on beating each other. nt

[B Calm]

2. LOVE IT!

[Laelth]

3. Excellent. Popcorn time. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[Turbineguy]

4. Keep up the good work!

You'll destroy the country yet!

[arely staircase]

5. on the one hand this is means they are determined to rip each other to shreds and that might help

Some dems. But as long as these districts a gerrymandered they will keep a majority and will remaine determined to blow up the country for their insane ideology. Until we take back statehouses and redraw districts they will keep this country disfunctional.

[localroger]

15. The Teahadists are getting deeply unpopular even among Republicans

Even in heavily gerrymandered districts if 20% of the Republican voters abstain because they can't hold their nose and vote for the crazy, it undoes the gerrymandering and gives the Dems a real shot. The effect of gerrymandering is to move votes around, and you can't move votes that evaporate.

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. "Primaries for Traitors Fund". Hmmmph. I've got a better name for it.

I'm sure you do, too.

How could the Head Teabaggers have missed out on such an absolutely perfect name like "Teabag the Traitors Fund?"

[demwing]

7. “credible candidates” ???

[malaise]

8. Weren't their sorry asses whipped in Virginia?

What happened to their ignoramus candidates in 2012?
Didn't Obama win the Presidency by five milllion plus votes?

Fugg the ReTHUG baggers.

[FSogol]

9. They are incapable of learning from their mistakes. Please proceed, Tea Baggers!

[malaise]

10. Butter please

[tsuki]

12. This group is out of Alexandria, VA.

Apparently, they are spend quite a bit of time in the Beltway Bubble of Conventional Wisdom where the Teabaggers really won VA.

[FSogol]

11. What's up with that picture of Boehner? Is top shelf alcohol about to spill out of his mouth?

[scheming daemons]

13. any money they spend fighting each other is money they dont spend fighting us

...

[Gman]

14. Where can I send a check?

[MissMillie]

16. Think they'd call Ronald Reagan a RINO?

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jul/22/barack-obama/ronald-reagan-talks-about-debt-ceiling/


"This country now possesses the strongest credit in the world," Reagan wrote. "The full consequences of a default – or even the serious prospect of default – by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns."

[arely staircase]

18. tax and spend california liberal nt

[DefenseLawyer]

24. That depends if you mean factual Reagan or right wing fantasy Reagan

They would have no time for the actual Reagan (although in my opinion, if Reagan were in this political climate he would be just as crazy as they are) but the right wing fantasy Reagan, the Tax cutting, Russian killing, deficit hating, bane of all things government will never be challenged by the Tea Party. Fantasy Reagan is whatever they need him to be.

[MisterP]

31. the Central American far-right called him a Muscovite plant by 1989

IOW, if you believe Ortega and Chavez are Stalinist tyrants, ERGO you have to also believe that the Birchers are themselves Reds!

[LeftishBrit]

19. Well, if it has the same effect as when they did it in Indiana last year, I'd say go for it.

[Coyotl]

20. At this point, this is merely a threat to primary them. We shall see.

It won't matter which kind of Republicans they are when they are in the minority, because then they will all be members of the irrelevant Party!

[wiggs]

21. Think about the money math. This is not a grass roots effort and the money

will not come from small donations from middle class and working poor tea partiers in 20 dollar chunks. This will be funded by a handful of super rich backers. The amount of money needed to swing a majority of these races is a pittance to these guys and they will consider it investment money well spent. They have a chance to swing the House toward a potential future where the tea party tail doesn't have to wag the republican dog anymore...the House could be tea party dominated. Wouldn't be that hard to drop money on key small races; it's a proven strategy that has already given us 40 tea partiers and many gop dominated state governments. They can't win national elections but they can certainly drop enough money to win state seats.

Tea partiers will be successful in primarying a bunch of these guys...and some percentage will make it through the general election. And along the way, the money spent helps down-ticket tea partiers running for state offices.

Off-cycle elections are there for the taking by those with the money. Where is the counterbalancing money going to come from by the left? Is being on the right side of issues enough? Do logic and self-interest trump anger and fear in getting out the vote?

[hfojvt]

22. "you cannot be a conservative and vote to increase the debt ceiling"

woahkay. Might wanna check out this vote in 2002 to increase the debt ceiling.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll279.xml

Seems like there are some conservatives with pretty solid creds (as conservatives) voting to increase the debt limit.

Todd Akin of Missouri
Todd Tiahrt of Kansas
Jim Ryun of Kansas
Paul Ryan of Wisconsin (!!!)
Mike Pence of Indiana
Joe Barton of Texas (member of the Tea Party caucus)
Gus Bilirakis of Florida (another member of TPC)
Roy Blunt of Missouri
Howard Coble of North Carolina
Ander Crenshaw of Florida
John Culberson of Texas
Gary Miller of California
Ed Royce of California
Pete Sessions of Texas
Lamar Smith of Texas
Joe Wilson of South Carolina

One reason there are not more Tea Party Caucus members voting to increase the debt limit is because many of them were not in Congress at the time.

Otherwise, they need to primary that list of Quislings as well.

[KamaAina]

32. YOU LIE!!

Joe Wilson of South Carolina

[mountain grammy]

23. Tea baggers are stupid, but dangerously so, and they're in elected positions

at every level. They're racist and homophobic. They believe in a religious government. They must be defeated, always!

[DefenseLawyer]

25. Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell are all available

Even Sarah Palin if the money's right. Make the call!

[MineralMan]

26. Democrats should be looking for really credible candidates

for all of those districts. Let the Republicans duke it out among themselves while Democrats campaign to win every one of those districts.

That is a winning strategy.

[CoffeeCat]

27. Good. Maybe this is the year that the tea party...

...will have their tea bags handed to them.

They've had their 15 minutes. The overwhelming majority of Americans has a negative view of the tea party. However, the tea party's view of life is so skewed, because Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the Fox News propaganda machine gives them the illusion of acceptance and importance.

I welcome this bravado from a very delusional 10 percent segment of the population. They've got their views. This is America, so any insane opinion is allowed. It's a shame that talk radio puffed up their perceived importance. It worked for a while, but you can only run on hot air for so long.

BTW--Liz Cheney is losing big time in Wyoming.

[starroute]

28. Dan Backer again -- I keep posting about him

Backer is the lawyer behind the McCutcheon case, which seeks to overturn all limits on individual donations to political candidates. His TheTeaParty.net is also one of the groups that's been raising a stink about having their application for non-profit status held up by the IRS. And given the track record of some of his PACs, he seems to be more interested in ripping off Tea Party donors than in actually doing anything with their money.

Here's a link to my post in a thread on the McCutcheon case a couple of months ago:
http://metamorphosis.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3733427

This guy is bad news anywhere he shows up.

[Katashi_itto]

29. I'm torn. Trying to decide if I should donate to this circular firing squad

or donate to one of our canidates

:p

[meow2u3]

30. Who's calling whom traitors, teabaggers?

If teabaggers want to see traitors, all they have to do is consult the nearest mirror and gaze intently until they see their reflections.

[HijackedLabel]

33. And this is why they're in worse trouble than the Dems.

No amount of media spin can make me believe that people will send more teabaggers to Congress over hard-working Democrats.