If House GOP insurgents are reluctant to crown a leader, there’s no lack of outside conservative groups eager to step into the void. The trouble is, they’re now fighting among themselves over the perils of a government shutdown over Obamacare.
First, a little background. After the massive Goldwater presidential defeat in 1964, conservatives went on a tear of institution building, from college organizations and newspapers to richly funded think tanks and activist groups. Over time, some groups took it upon themselves to “score” which members of Congress were true conservatives, then to support the true conservatives and help defeat the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only). A black mark from a group like the Club for Growth, Heritage Action, or Americans for Tax Reform could sway decision to mount a primary challenge or, for conservative donors, to fund those who did.
While these groups typically agree on issues such as limiting the size of government or avoiding tax hikes, they often differ on tactics and certainly differ on whose group is more worthy of support from top conservative donors.
Typically, these activist groups have been allied with GOP leadership on big policy outcomes. But the Obamacare fight has set off fratricidal battles in conservative ranks off Capitol Hill as well as on it.
Heritage Action and the Club for Growth strongly backed the moves to link Obamacare to must-pass measures to fund government or extend the debt limit. Over the summer, Heritage Foundation president and former Sen. Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina – viewed by many as the godfather of the tea party movement – did a nationwide tour to promote resistance to Obamacare and encourage members to take a strong stand and expect to win, despite what the polls said.
“When people find out that the president is shutting down the government to implement a law doesn’t work, nobody supports, and even he admits isn’t ready, I think there will be a popular uprising from Americans to hold those standing in the way accountable,” says Barney Keller, a spokesman for the Club for Growth. “That’s a fight we’re more than happy to have.”
Heritage Action also encouraged Republicans to defy conventional wisdom on what can be accomplished in a divided government and take the fight to the Democrat-controlled Senate.
“The fight always should have been in the Senate, and it took us a while to get there,” says spokesman Dan Holler.
In a controversial move in GOP ranks, Heritage Action ran digital ads in 100 Republican districts urging GOP lawmakers to fight to link defunding Obamacare and the threat of a government shutdown. “Some took that as ads against them,” he says.
As to how Heritage Action expected to convince Democrats to oppose their own party’s signature legislative achievement, he said: “We’re discussing that. We expect that everybody who opposes Obamacare will be doing all they can to put the necessary pressure on senators."
Heritage Action has yet to announce what it is prepared to do to help move legislation through the Senate or at what level it would fund such a campaign.
Meanwhile, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, which launched the Taxpayer Protection Pledge that has been a rallying point for GOP lawmakers since 1986, has backed Boehner in the Obamacare showdown.
By throwing all the emphasis on a possibly losing battle to break Obamacare, Republicans run the risk of losing the mandated sequester spending cuts they won in the last fiscal cliff negotiations, he says.
“We have a Democratic president, with a veto, who’s just as committed to his wrong-headed vision as we are to our correct vision,” Norquist told CQRollCall on Sept. 11. “Holding the sequester numbers over time crushes the other team. Neither team can pin the other team, but you can make some progress.”
Moreover, he suggests that rival groups have misled Republicans with claims for a victory that may not be possible.
“Heritage Action and Club for Growth are the two groups who said that if it passed out of the House, it would obviously pass the Senate and the president would be forced to sign it, but did they tell you their plan to get 51 votes in the Senate?” he says. “How much money are [they] going to spend, and who are their targets?”
