House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) had hoped to keep the government open past Sept. 30 with relatively little fuss. But roughly 40 conservatives revolted. After a strategy session Tuesday, Boehner and his leadership team were being pushed into a more confrontational strategy that would fund the government into the new fiscal year only if Democrats agreed to undermine Obama’s signature legislative achievement. ...WaPo
The Koch brothers and their coterie are no less lethal -- and over a far wider area (not just Nevada and New Jersey) -- than the "Godfather" mob. We have not so far emphasized their resemblance to organized crime. But there it is. Looking back over the origins of the tea parties (as I did yesterday), one can't but help notice how bought-out and corrupt they became once the Kochs began organizing them, far earlier than most current accounts would make you think.
In Texas, the Kochs paid for a professional organizer and pretty much coopted a movement to cleanup government that, at first, included enthusiasts from left to right. The "advisers," the gifts, the substantial backing changed things. The tea parties narrowed their views, lost many followers, and followed the money. For the best memory-refresher, try Jane Mayer's profile of the Kochs published two years ago.
Harry Reid is calling them "anarchists." That and more... The Wall Street Journal (even!) has warned them.
“None of the Republicans are willing to stand up to these anarchists,” Reid told reporters. Of the law known as Obamacare, he added: “They’re obsessed with a bill that passed four years ago, a bill that was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. They can’t get over that.”
Even many Republicans have expressed frustration with the right wing’s fixation on the health-care law, which is intended to make insurance affordable to millions of additional Americans. People are due to begin signing up with new state-run insurance exchanges Oct. 1 and will be eligible for new federal subsidies in 2014.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) and a band of House conservatives are leading the charge to block implementation of the law, along with outside groups such as Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth. ...WaPo
Peggy Venable is the community organizer/political strategist the Kochs' Americans For Prosperity sent to Texas in 2010 to organize the community of new tea parties at a rally at Austin. Ted Cruz became one of her proteges.
During a catered lunch, Venable introduced Ted Cruz, a former solicitor general of Texas, who told the crowd that Obama was “the most radical President ever to occupy the Oval Office,” and had hidden from voters a secret agenda—“the government taking over our economy and our lives.” Countering Obama, Cruz proclaimed, was “the epic fight of our generation!” As the crowd rose to its feet and cheered, he quoted the defiant words of a Texan at the Alamo: “Victory, or death!” ...NewYorker
All that and more --much, much more! -- comes straight out of the pockets of the Koch brothers.
