With bipartisan deals emerging on guns and immigration, Tea Party lawmakers in the lower chamber are warning their leaders to slow down. Longtime immigration reform critic Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) was alarmed when saw the bullet point “immigration” on the agenda for Wednesday’s GOP conference meeting.
“Up on our agenda came immigration … [leadership is] going to bring immigration, according to the agenda, sometime to the floor. How do we know we’re going to do immigration when we haven’t talked about it yet? How come don’t I know this, because I’m on the [Judiciary] committee? How come all these meetings on immigration are going on and I’m not being invited to them?” said King, a possible Senate candidate in 2014.
After the media reported that an immigration deal among the Senate’s Gang of Eight was imminent, a number of conservatives in the House told their leadership on Wednesday that they didn’t want to get steamrolled by the upper chamber.
Meanwhile, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) recently warned Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) not to bring a firearm bill to the floor unless it has a majority of the chamber’s majority. In an op-ed in The Hill, Stockman wrote, “[President] Obama and the Astroturf anti-gun agenda are leading his party into political oblivion, and Boehner is missing an opportunity to solidify and rally a voting and activist base of millions.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/293191-immigration-gun-deals-make-tea-party-lawmakers-restless
"Obama and the Astroturf anti-gun agenda are leading his party into political oblivion..." I always wonder how many republican politicians really believe this versus just saying it to please their base and the conservative media. I used to think the former, but last year's election made me wonder. Their oft-professed optimism that romney was going to win big was so patently in contrast to polls, but many seemed genuinely shocked after the election that Obama actually won. It seems that watching only FOX and listening only to Limbaugh, et al, puts you in a cocoon in which you believe just about anything.
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