Mike Lee on the Omnibus Spending Bill

Mike Lee on the Tea Party

On GOP Party Unity

In the week before all of the delegates gathered in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, there were backroom efforts to instill party unity by respecting the conservative grassroots.  

On the Rules Committee, former Virginia Attorney General and RNC Delegate Ken Cuccinelli and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) worked to give sway to conservatives in the 2020 primary cycle via backdoor negotiations.  What seems to have ended the efforts was a call for closed primaries and a study group to examine the primary process, but not with the members hand-picked by the RNC establishment.  

Talks broke down and the Rules Committee defeated the motion to affirm the long standing Republican principle of Unbinding the Delegates on the first round of balloting in Cleveland.  

The only exception was in the 1976 Kansas City Convention, when President Gerald Ford barely beat out former Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA) because of a change in rules (coincidentally also engineered by Trump convention manager Paul Manafort) to bind delegates.



Unnamed RNC officials quipped: "Pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered".  So window dressing overtures were acceptable but anything that might actually endanger the GOP Establishment is a cause to crush with a vengeance. 




Even during his rambling introduction of his Vice Presidential running mate, presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump could not help but take a swing at his opposition, even at the eve of the Trump triumph, as he urged out of the other side of his mouth for party unity.  It seems that the choice of Governor Mike Pence (R-IN), a traditional conservative who will not upstage the top of the ticket is supposed to suffice for the conservative grassroots.
Pence for your thoughts?

Senator Mike Lee on Donald Trump

Lindsey Graham on Senatorial Discourtesy

Failed 2016 Presidential hopeful Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had some sharp barbs at his rival Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) while speaking at the Washington Press Club Foundation Dinner.

Graham joked that that homicide could be committed on Cruz and there would be no conviction in the Senate. It is disgusting that Graham is echoing the homicidal hypothetical that Donald Trump used about to justify his cult of personality.  Graham might want to consult with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX 18th) on homicide. 

Graham may have revealed an inconvenient truth that Cruz upsets the apple-cart of the go along to get along Cocktail Party Club setup of the Senate, hence he's unpopular.

But if you parse Lindsey's language, no one in the Senate would convict. Perhaps that is to say that no Senators have convictions. Aside from Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ben Sasse (R-NB), this train of thought might be on track.

Lindsey fancies himself to be a funny guy.  That may be true. But he shouldn't quit his day job. On second thought, leaving his day job might not be so bad. There may be some audiences in the Distict of Calamity that are craving political puppet shows. 

Senator Mike Lee on Bureaucracy

Senator Bob Bennett on the Tea Party

It should be noted that three term former Senator Bennett lost to Mike Lee in 2010 during the GOP State Convention to choose their nominee.  Bennett was the son of Senator Wallace Forest Bennett (R-UT) who served from 1951-1974. 

It seems that the Establishment prefers the Cocktail Party on Capitol Hill rather than the Tea Party who will challenge the status quo.  In the 114th Congress, political junkies will discern if newly elected Senators like Senator-elect Joni Ernst (R-IA), Senator-elect Ben Sasse (R-NB), Senator-elect Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Senator-elect Cory Gardner (R-CO) opt for the establishment or seek to shake up the Senate GOP caucus. 

Jon Huntsman, Sr. is another storied name in Utah politics, recently opined that Republican's don't have a prayer in Presidential politics unless they nominate a moderate like Jon Huntsman, Jr. or Jeb Bush.  It is certainly understandable that Huntsman would unwavingly support his son, but plugging for Jeb screams of dynasty and an orientation of establishment.   

Time will tell if Senator Bennett and Jon Huntman's prognostications are prophetic or echoes of an earlier age.

Mike Lee on Immigration

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) railed against the Department of Homeland Security's rumored relaxation of deportations of illegal immigrants. At the same time, the Tea Party inspired Senator noted that conservatives are willing to address immigration but in a step-by-step rather than a collossal comprehensive immigration bill, which would be a monstrosity ala Obamacare. 

Mike Lee on Cronyism

Freshman Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) shows that he is not afraid to call out his own as well as those in the opposing party to advance ideals of the free market. No wonder why Lee is a darling of Tea Party types.

Scenes from the Tea Party Patriots 5th Anniversary

Tea Party Patriot President Jenny Beth Martin at 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]

Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN 6th) thanks Tea Party Patriots at 5th Anniversary event

True the Vote' Founder Catherine Engelbrecht tells the Tea Party Patriots how her  good governance efforts 
to better ensure non fraudulent voting resulted into government harassment [photo credit: BD Matt]

             Talk Radio host and author Mark Levin  inspires the Tea Party Patriots with stories about the
Founding Fathers and Ronald Reagan at the TPP 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]

Rep. Steve King (R-IA 4th) lets loose against alleged Obama Administration abuses at the Tea Party

Patriots 5th Anniversary event  [photo: BD Matt]

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) shows  his Senate photo ID at the TPP 5th Anniversary  [photo:  BD Matt]

Rep Louie Gohmert (R-TX 1st) speaks at the Tea Party Patriots 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]

                 Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) recounts egregious examples of government waste  at the Tea Party

                 Patriots 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) energizes the Tea Party Patriots 5th Anniversary event [photo: BD Matt]

Some Reasons to Give Flying Flip About Filibusters

Senator Ted Cruz (R-FL) took to the Senate floor and stood  for 21 hours and 19 minutes  to speak against voting for the cloture motion on the House Continuing Resolution legislation (House Res. 59) . But detractors like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are quick to insist that it was not a filibuster.  It is said that the Freshman Senator from Florida could not have a filibuster as his effort was not intended to delay or prevent legislative action.    

A broader understanding of filibuster is an effort to prevent action by making a long speech.  The 21 hours and 19 minutes of floor time certainly qualifies as a long speech.  Consider the aim of Senator Cruz’s effort.  He was speaking against a cloture motion.  Cloture is the procedure that a 60 vote majority in the Senate cuts off debate.  

Those who deny that Senator Cruz’s control of the Senate Floor for nearly a full day was not a filibuster are less interested in abiding by proper political parlance.  They know that the public generally considers a filibuster a noble effort of a Senator to abide his conscience and speak what he understands as the truth until he can stand no more.   Filibusters evoke memory’s of the Frank Capra film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939).

[L] Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)  [R] Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during filibuster 

But if Cruz just was giving a very long speech, then he can be framed as just wasting the Senate’s time, even though Majority Leader Reid was appraised and approved of the talkathon. 

All of this between-the-beltways trivialities about filibusters illustrates one of Senator Cruz’s concerns.  Early on in his filibuster, Senator Cruz alleged that most people don’t give a flying flip about a bunch of politicians in Washington, DC with cheap suits and haircuts. A filibuster may empty the Senate chamber, but it can generate considerable attention and audience via CSPAN as well as alternate media and the internet. 










But couching the Senate floor action as a non-filibuster against the cloture vote on the Continuing Resolution (House Res. 59) which it’s technically correct, it is smoke and mirrors to confuse the public of the real work. 

The Continuing Resolution is a budget matter.  The Senate had not passed a budget in four years, and so Continuing Resolutions which used prior spending levels as a metric for stop gap funding have been used.  For Fiscal Year 2014, the Senate had not passed any specific appropriation bills and the October 1st  fiscal new year loomed.  

So the House of Representatives passed a Continuing Resolution for two months of funding of all federal programs, save the yet to be implemented Obamacare.  The White House and Senate Democrats under the direction of Senate Majority Leader Reid want to strip the defund Obamacare provision, which many ayes in the House were premised.

The cloture motion was meant to cut off debate.  If passed, Senate rules for budget bills then only allow for 30 hours of debate.  Senator Cruz and other tea party sympathetic conservatives were concerned that Senator Reid would present a clean bill, which stripped the defund Obamacare provision and not allow for any amendments.  

Cruz’s filibuster sought to educate the public of the Senatorial shenanigans.  Cruz alleged that some Republicans wanted to vote for cloture and then vote against final passage.  This DC two step allows what detractors call RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) to say that they voted against the bill, but their vote was a purely symbolic measure and the Democrat majority gets its way to continue to impose an overarching takeover of the health care system (aside from Congress and Federal workers, who were extra juridically exempted by President Obama over specific legislative provisions). 

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In between renditions of Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham for the Cruz childrens’ storytime, there was probably more substantive debate about Obamacare’s adverse effect on the health care delivery system and retarding economic growth during Cruz’ s filibuster than what occurred when the so called Affordable Care Act was passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve, 2009. 




The filibuster drew more ordinary people outside of the District of Calamity (sic) to pay attention to detailed arguments against than the sweet lies put forth by the  White House and the lapdog Lamestream Media.

While procedurally Senator Cruz's efforts might not amount to much, this is not the only battle to be found in defunding Obamacare.  Even if Senator Reid is successful in passing a Continuing Resolution which strips the defund Obamacare provisions through the Senate, the House must act.  Either the Republican majority in House must acquiesce to Senator Reid's jam down  with a "clean" C.R., the Chambers must  conference or the House can pass another legislative vehicle which the Senate may not approve prior to October 1st.  There are suggestions that revised House legislation might include a one year delay in Obamacare, revoking the Congressional Obamacare exemption,  or approving  XL pipeline, which would be a tough pill for Senate Democrats to swallow. 

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington illustrated how people in the heartland became engaged in a filibuster by dumping an alluvia of telegrams on the Senate floor.  Senator Cruz is hoping that in the internet age, public opinion can be galvanized by social media.  C-SPAN allowed for internet 2.0 peer to peer engagement with Cruz reading Twitter messages on the Senate Floor.  Cruz is counting on alternate media and social media to work around the Lamestream Media and produce a groundswell of support which changes the static between the beltway certainty that an unpopular, flawed law like Obamare can be ramrodded into implementation. 

Senator Cruz's filibuster drew back the curtain on the complacency of the Cocktail Party in both parties between the beltways. The vitriolic reaction that senior Senator John McCain (R-AZ) unleashed against Cruz after stopped speaking reveals his true self. Freshman Senator John Boozman (R-AR) reportedly dressed Cruz down for all the out of state phone calls about Obamacare.   And Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to support the renegade rhetoric.  This internecine sniping prompted former Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) to note:  "We already have three parties: the Liberal Democrats, the RINO Republicans and 'the good guys.' ". 

Cruz's marathon speech in the Senate also showed some unity amongst the Young Turks.  Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) was instrumental in dissecting the deficiencies and questionable jurisprudential propriety of Obamacare implementation. But what was really impressive was to see how prospective rivals for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination, namely Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), worked together to get the message out about Obamacare and do something, rather than sit back and cast empty symbolic votes.

The nearly day long debate also had a couple of remarkable colloquies with "friends" on the other side of the aisle.

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In trying to generate groundswell support in the grassroots, Senator Cruz's filibuster popularized the mantra "Make DC Listen".  This slogan may energize the Tea Party Caucus, possibly be the touchstone of a third party or a Presidential campaign.  Nevertheless, "Make DC Listen" taps into public discontent and shows social media savvy. 

So even though Senator Cruz was not successful in his immediate tactic to prevent cloture on the C.R., we ought to give a flying flip about his filibuster as it may be a harbinger for real change in the District of Calamity (sic). 

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