By all accounts, Republicans came out on the losing end of the final deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling, but the leader of one of the most influential conservative organizations says it only happened because establishment Republicans deliberately and publicly undermined their more conservative colleagues.
“The problem from the very beginning of this process is you had a divide within the GOP, between those that were willing to avoid any confrontation on the budget at any cost and those like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and a growing number of Republicans that wanted to fight for something meaningful, wanted to do what they said they were going to do in their last election,” said Freedomworks President and CEO Matt Kibbe. “That was our Achille’s heel from day one because more establishmentarian types like John McCain and John Cornyn started shooting at their own instead of all of us focusing our message on the Democrats and the huge liability that is Obamacare.”
Twenty-seven Senate Republicans voted for the final deal while 18 opposed it. Many long-serving GOP members publicly slammed Cruz and Lee for waging a battle they didn’t have the votes to win. McCain and others repeatedly asserted that Obamacare cannot realistically be addressed until the party controls both chambers of Congress and the White House. Kibbe has no patience for that argument.
“I’ve been in Washington long enough that I’ve noticed this pattern where politicians tell you that we have to wait until after the next election to do what we said we were going to do. There’s always another election and they always it’s too hard to take on entitlements, it’s too hard to take on Obamacare,” said Kibbe, who notes that Cornyn, as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee argued in 2010 that fighting Obamacare was a a losing strategy.
“There’s an upside to fighting. Tip O’Neill, the famous Democratic speaker, proved that when he shut down the government some 12 times to challenge both President Carter and Reagan on his budget priorities. We’ve lost that willingness to fight. It’s not easy reining in government, but the question is if you don’t like the strategy that Lee and Cruz came up with, I didn’t see another one on the table. And not fighting is not an option,” said Kibbe.
On Thursday, Kibbe authored a foxnews.com column entitled, “Establishment Republicans have given up — it’s time for the rest of us to do their job.” The piece is more of a diagnosis than a prescription, but Kibbe says the simplest path to progress is bringing more conservatives to Washington who will fight for the principles they run on.
“We need to look for upgrades in both the Democratic and Republican Party. If you look at the electoral map in 2014, you’re definitely going to see some establishment Republicans challenged like we did in 2012 and 2010. You’re also going to see upgrades in open seats and pickup seats with Democrats,” said Kibbe.
So which GOP members would Kibbe like to see defeated in primaries next year? South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are at the top of his list.
“I think there’s a real opportunity there,” said Kibbe of the possibility of defeating Sen. Graham. “I think Mitch McConnell’s in trouble, particularly after the last couple of days and this special sweetheart deal that was tucked into the bill and earmarked for Kentucky.”
Kibbe says it’s far too early to determine which primaries Freedomworks might target. He says making sure a solid, grassroots conservative is running and can be competitive are major keys to determining which races to influence.
And while Democrats, some Republicans and the media disparage Sen. Lee and Sen. Cruz, Kibbe says their argument will gain many more supporters as the facts about Obamacare continue to emerge.
“As we see the actual implementation of Obamacare hurt actual people, people that are herded into the exchanges even though they were promised they could keep the health care that they had, young people that will be forced to buy something they can’t afford and others that will see their jobs cut or their premiums increase, all of those real factors are going to prove us right and the Democrats wrong as we head into 2014,” said Kibbe.
