David Drucker, writing in the Washington Examiner, chooses to emphasize the divisions in the Republican Party and to amplify the message of the dissenters who never wanted a fight over ObamaCare that could lead to a government shutdown. He uses some math that is becoming familiar:
The growing group of lawmakers was publicly silent until now, voicing concerns privately only to their GOP colleagues while publicly rallying around the proposal, in part, to ensure the GOP caucus maintained a united front. With the government now closed and Democrats refusing to negotiate any changes to Obamacare, these Republicans are saying flatly that they’ve had it…
…There are 233 Republicans in the House, and most of them never approved of using the threat of a government shutdown to slow Obamacare, a strategy spearheaded by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, and adopted by a few dozen House Republicans. It was plainly obvious that the GOP did not have the 60 votes needed to advance the bill in the Democratic Senate and Republicans didn’t have enough votes in either chamber to override President Obama’s certain veto.
The “few dozen” number puts the size of the Tea Party suicide brigade at somewhere between 36 and 60, which corresponds to the other number I keep seeing (180) for the dissenting faction. With 233 members, perhaps 53 are in favor of the shutdown and 180 are against it.
If the numbers are indeed that lopsided, it doesn’t bode well for the long-term cohesiveness of the House GOP. Yet, so far, almost of all the House Republicans who have been willing to go on the record are from culturally blue states or are representing a lot of government employees. I wouldn’t describe all these members as politically vulnerable, as most of their districts are drawn to be safe. But they are culturally alienated. You can be fairly invulnerable in your gerrymandered district in the Philly suburbs, but that doesn’t mean you can explain yourself or your party at the supermarket.
