As the Republican leadership reaches a deal with President Obama, the biggest stumbling block may be the newest members of their own coalition.
National Journal (“Congressional GOP Leaders Slowly Convincing Newer Members of Importance of Raising Debt Ceiling“):
As top Republicans face delicate and difficult negotiations with the White House, they are beginning a concerted effort to prepare newer members of the Republican conference to vote in favor of raising the ceiling. This coming week’s most difficult task, some Republicans believe, will be getting their own freshman class to a yes vote.
The hurdles House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority LeaderMitch McConnell and their respective leadership teams face are formidable. The vast majority of new members, coupled with hard-core conservative veterans like Sen. Jim DeMint, began the year indicating there was no way they could vote to raise the debt ceiling. Some even believe there won’t be consequences if a deal isn’t reached by August 2.
Slowly, senior Republicans have been walking their newer colleagues off that position. Boehner, McConnell and the rest know what will happen if Republicans and Democrats cannot work out a deal; what’s more, they believe voters will ultimately blame them for obstruction, rather than Democrats. “The leadership uniformally understands the need to reach some kind of agreement that will avoid default,” said a senior House Republican aide.
McConnell has publicly made the case that a default will have serious negative political fallout for the GOP. In an interview on conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham’s program on Wednesday, McConnell said Democrats “want to blame the economy on us and the reason default is no better an idea today than when Newt Gingrich tried it in 1995 is that it destroys your brand. It would give the president an opportunity to blame Republicans for a bad economy.”
Privately, House Republicans have been driving home the message that a failure to increase the debt ceiling would be a disaster. Sources said Boehner has been “aggressive,” in one aide’s words, in articulating the need to reach a deal.
The problem here is that the freshman are not only idealists who still think they can change the world all by themselves, most of them were elected as a result of a powerful ideological wave. So, they’re True Believers who see themselves as fighting the good fight against a corrupt system.
The politics aren’t great, either. Doing the responsible thing and agreeing to the best deal they can get may get them primaried, accused of selling out their beliefs and becoming Washington Insiders, the most dreaded beast in politics.
