Conservatives are shocked.
It isn’t House Speaker John Boehner who is hoisting a freshly laundered white flag of surrender. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seems to have stolen it from Mr. Boehner.
Shockingly enough, Mr. Boehner seems ready to fight Barack Obama on the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill.
This fight has been brewing since the end of last year, when the so-called “Cromnibus” bill was passed by Congress and sent to the White House.
Conservatives screamed loudly about the “Cromnibus” bill. It funded the government through September 2015, with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security. Conservatives thought this was a really bad idea since the American people had just given the Republicans control of the Senate and conservatives thought the will of the people should be honored. Instead of funding the government for the entire year, conservatives thought the government should just be funded for a couple of months and let the new Republican majority decide spending instead of outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Even though Mr. McConnell was not the majority leader, he led the fight in the Senate to get Republicans onboard with the “Cromnibus.”
For the last few weeks, the battle has been fought over the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. The Republicans in the House passed an appropriations bill that blocked funding for President Obama’s executive amnesty program. Senate Democrats filibustered the bill.
Leader McConnell had promised the GOP would block any funding of Mr. Obama’s executive amnesty. Faced with the potential shut down of the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. McConnell has decided he would rather surrender than fight.
The last time the government shut down in 2013, Mr. McConnell helped engineer the deal that stabbed conservatives in the back. At the time, there were predictions that the shutdown would cost the Republicans. Instead, the Republican Party gained 13 seats in the Senate and took the majority.
There is a time and a place for everything, including a time and a place to fight. Mr. McConnell won’t do that. There seems to be nothing he will fight for.
The American people put the Republicans in charge for one reason. They want Mr. Obama stopped. The American people don’t want some wimpy surrender monkey leading the GOP. They want real leaders who will fight when it is necessary.
Amnesty is a fight that must be had. If the Democrats are able to get amnesty imposed, the end result will be the Republican Party will be nothing more than a minority party. America will look like California, where the Democrats hold a super majority.
That should be reason enough for Republicans to fight Mr. Obama’s executive amnesty. But these are Republicans. They are all members of the Capitol Hill Club and most of them don’t want to dirty their dainty little hands with a fight. They don’t want to soil Mr. McConnell’s freshly laundered white flag of surrender.
If the Republican majority in the Senate is to survive it needs someone who knows how to lead.
There is a time to compromise and a time to fight. This is the time to fight.
For Mr. McConnell, the scales have been weighed and once again, he has been found wanting.
For Republicans, there is one simple message: Mr. McConnell has to go as the Republican majority leader.
If he does not, in 2017, there will be a Senate Republican Minority Leader.
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