A potential monkey wrench in the Draft Meadows effort?
Congressman Mark Meadows collected a lot of new fans with his recent tussle with John Boehner and crew. An effort has arisen to encourage Meadows to forego election to the House in 2016 and primary incumbent US senator Richard Burr.
Well, certain developments in DC have me thinking that primary matchup might be looking less and less likely:
A critical bloc of House conservatives has been invigorated by its victory over GOP leaders, who caved in a high-profile fight over a punished subcommittee chairman.
The reinstatement of Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) is a small win for the months-old Freedom Caucus. But it could have broader implications when House Republicans pick a new leadership team after the 2016 elections.
While Freedom Caucus founders insist they aren’t focused on next year’s contests, the cluster of about 50 conservative rebels is gaining clout in the conference and will surely have a role to play if there’s a choice presented to members.
[…] The Freedom Caucus could be uniquely positioned to be a kingmaker in the next round of leadership contests.
Since its founding earlier this year, the group of approximately four dozen members has seen its stature grow, even as it keeps its membership a secret.
The fight over Meadows also suggests the Tea Party rebels, long an irritant to Team Boehner, are growing more organized.
To help Meadows reclaim his gavel, caucus members with backgrounds in the weeds of parliamentary procedures hit the books and discovered that GOP conference rules only allow a committee chairman to appoint subcommittee chairmen if a majority of the panel’s members don’t object. Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz’s panel, they noted, was packed with Freedom Caucus members and their allies, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a leader of the group.
Armed with that knowledge, conservatives realized they could force Chaffetz (R-Utah) to reinstate Meadows, who had been removed for bucking GOP leaders on a crucial trade vote.
Over the course of several discussions, including a late-night meeting in the basement of Capitol Hill’s Tortilla Coast restaurant, Jordan and other caucus members hatched a plan: Call a closed-door, members-only meeting of the Oversight Committee and demand that Chaffetz reinstate Meadows. Otherwise the Subcommittee on Government Operations would remain leaderless, caucus members said.
The strategy worked.
“They went to the books and looked up the rules and realized that we have rights,” Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), another caucus co-founder, said in a phone interview Wednesday. “A committee chairman can’t just do anything he wants to do, even when directed by the Speaker.”
The Freedom Caucus was formed, in part, to take on the larger Republican Study Committee, which many members felt had grown too cozy with leadership and too big for its own good. The new invite-only caucus provided conservatives with a political infrastructure, including a small staff and weekly meetings, that’s helped improve communications and strategy.
[…]
This crew went to the mat for Meadows. It sounds like they’ve got a pretty sizable rebel faction within the House GOP caucus. They made Boehner blink at least once. Maybe they’ll do it again.
It sounds like they’ve got big plans to remake the caucus and the House. If Meadows were successful in ousting Burr, he’d have a lot less help in the upper chamber.
I have no inside information on Meadows’s thinking on this matter. He’s got to be flattered by the draft movement. If he gives up his House seat, and is unsuccessful in his run at Burr, he has no platform left from which to push his conservative message. If he wins, and joi
ns Thom Tillis and the gang in the Senate, it may feel like a step back for him. The Tea Party appears to be making real inroads in the House. And Meadows stands to be at the forefront of that tidal change.
Make no mistake. We’d like to see Richard Burr out of government. He’s been a huge disappointment.
We need to get to work cultivating some bright young talent to move up the ranks in government. There are some promising young conservatives in the General Assembly (and out there in local governments) who could have a seat in Congress in their futures.
If this gang in the Freedom Caucus has their way and fundamentally changes the chamber that controls the federal government’s purse-strings, staying in the House might be too good of an opportunity for Meadows to give up.
Amen – start small – win the big things later. And controlling the purse strings is no small thing!
Meadows appears to be solid.
i now advocate he stays where he can have the greatest impact.
The Freedom Caucus has proven to be the only effective net gain that ‘we the people’ made in 14.
yes – we have a few good men and women in the Senate – but they have no power – except stalwart stands against windmills..
The few are gaining power in the House. Strategically, we need to leverage that this next election.
Follow the money! if you can successfully cut that off – all sorts of Senate GOPPERS and Dems will “ameliorate” their positions in attempts to defend their seats.
that is a Strategy.
The seat of power is with the Money – in the House..
The other bicameral seat of power is the Senate of course…but it really is humbled by the House, as today’s participants at the trough who convene in that august chamber are truly not concerned with the plebes, only the fruits of our labors – our Money!
If we can elect a House that is in majority comprised of true Conservatives…that is the key to breaking the Senate infestation to their knees.
They will become ‘conservative’ overnight ! But only in form to function as far as it appears to help their next election.
This is a good first step – but not one of us should stop there! we need to next purge the Senate while retaining the gains in the House in the follow on election.
If there is anything we should have learned over the last few elections: it is that our power over our Government does not lie at 1600 PA Ave….it is on Capitol Hill and whom we choose to elect to constrain the Executive & Judicial to enure to the wishes of the Citizenry.
Start low -Aim high – follow the money. Without money – the POTUS and Senate have no balls. With the House in control of the money we can aim at fixing the Judiciary. No Senator in his right re-election mind will nominate another Justice the likes of which ruled in the majority last week — IF the people have control of the House (money)…..and that means whomever is resident at 1600 as well.
Tactically!!!!, it is far easier to elect a Congressman than a Senator.
The latter has huge amounts of lobbyist money being accumulated every quarter – check out Burr and Tillis campaign reports around the middle of July…. report back Brant!
The little guy -The HoR guy – not so much.
logically then, with many of us not having so much money….wouldn’t it seem a more effective strategy to place our resources helping elect a conservative majority – solid people – in the HoR which body controls the money?
The little guys in quorum – control the money!! Brilliant. Who thought of this? whoever did must have been pretty sussed up on human behavior and history – ehhy?
Nobody in their right mind would say this would be easy- but it can be done if we get the non-voters who are like-minded, to have confidence again that their vote counts and do it!
Whilst i was sorely tempted to mourn, as i did the days before, on the 4th of July….i thought – you know Lord – if this does not get the evangelicals off their non-voting butts then we deserve what we get. i believe the readers her and i and the no-voters Faith will motivate them….let’s do all we can to effect that.
And kick your preachers in their ass to exhort their flocks to become warriors at the polls. IT should be their considered Christian duty..
….for it is said
‘So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
i turn to only the source of wisdom that i have.
…..My humble and feeble offerings to the discourse which must occur to cause action to happen..it is up to us with His Blessings
Respectfully submitted to those who consider such things…
what a huge responsibility
But we must — Act!
If Mark Meadows stays where he is in the House, then we need someone to run against Tricky Dick Burr for the Senate. My first choice would be Dan Forest, who is probably road kill, pulled down by McCrory, if he tries to stay where he is. He has a much better chance in running for the Senate.
Art Pope, who could self fund, would be another good choice.
This is good news either way. If we can somehow marginalize Boner that would be just about as good as getting rid of Tricky Dick.
“They made Boehner blink at least once.”
Yes, providing “wet his pants” is spelled “B-L-I-N-K.”
“Maybe they’ll do it again.”
Depends.