POSTINGS: NEW AND OLD

The new post below is a look at the GOP and Tea Party and what's currently going on in Congress.

In addition. November 14, was the 50th anniversary of an important historical event, the integration of an elementary school in New Orleans, the first elementary school in the nation to be integrated. I couldn't let this go by without referring to two previous writings on this subject. The first is one of my earliest posts: Charley, if you could hear it now: Racism. That post also indicates how this blog came to be labeled Charley-liberaldog. The Steinbeck book referred to was the inspiration for launching this blog in mid-July. The second post, A Tale of One City--Two Eras, is a 50-year-later look based on a visit to New Orleans and the school and linking that history to the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

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TO THE VICTORS: THE RIGHT TO FIGHT OVER THE SPOILS

The Republican election victory two weeks ago was a win for both the GOP and the Tea Party (TP), the latter setting the tone for the so-called discontented voter while, at the same time, pushing the GOP ideologically farther to the right. The question now is the one speculated on throughout the campaign. Will TP winners remain outside the tent of the establishment GOP and continue to be the discordant political and policy voice of the extreme right? Or, will it be co-opted by the GOP establishment and become just another part of a more conservative voice in Congress? This week's special session of Congress does not include the newly elected TP members, but it does give an opportunity for an initial look for answers to these questions since some preliminary GOP-TP skirmishes are underway.

In the House, the ever vocal, rampaging Representative Michelle Bachman has already and quickly lost her bid for the number four leadership position in the GOP. Bachman was the founder last summer of the Tea Party Caucus in the House which has more than 50 members. As the founder of the group, the promotion of the two-term Congresswoman to a leadership position would have been recognition of the contribution of the TP movement to the midterm election victory of Republicans. Instead, with the backing of the current GOP leadership (except for presumed new Speaker John Boehner who took an Olympian position and pretended to stay out of the fight), the post went to Jeb Hensarling, a four-term term conservative from Texas. So the first foray of the Tea Party to establish itself as a voice to be listened to inside the party estab;ishment fell flat.

Over in the Senate, the early issue of TP vs. GOP establishment is a bread and butter issue of pork barrel politics-- what to do about earmarking billions of dollars for favored projects in the home districts/states of members of the two chambers? A fundamental position of the Tea Party since its founding in early 2009, has been to cut federal spending with earmarking being one of the favorite targets for such cuts. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has defended earmarking, arguing that such funding comes from large pots of program money and if some of that is not earmarked for favorite projects of lawmakers, spending choices will be left in the hands of the administration/bureaucracy. The Senate voice for ending earmarking is Jim DeMint of South Carolina who has become a self-appointed leader of the TP which says it has no leadership structure. Rather the TP prefers to see itself as a grass roots movement expressing the voice of the people who "want to take their government back," whatever that means. That self-perception comes despite the fact that it, they, or whatever pieces there are of the TP, receive substantial financial backing from wealthy individuals and vested interests whose goal is serving their own political and economic self-interests. DeMint and the TP were the initial victors in the Senate earmarking dispute when McConnell backed down on the first day of the special session, but the issue is likely to come up again next year when specific appropriations are dealt with.

Meanwhile, outside of Congress, there are groups with Tea Party in their name or which serve as umbrella organizations for TP activists and as recipients of substantial outside financial support from those seeking to operate through so-called grass roots organizations. Before each new Congress there is an official orientation held to introduce first-time members to the nuts and bolts of their new jobs: organizing their office, the various staffing and other funds available to them, the legislative process, how to cast electronic floor votes, the basic rules of congressional decorum, and how to survive in Washington on $174,000 a year. The official orientation will be held this week. This year the Tea Party and like minded organizations have gotten in on the orientation act to give their particular slant on how to do things, and how the new members should think about certain issues that will come up.

One of these, FreedomWorks (FW) held a retreat last week. FW, headed by one-time Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey, receives substantial outside funding and has been a major organizer of TP activists and activities. The retreat, according to The New York Times, included topics such as: "guidelines to undoing the health care law; Monetary Policy and Economic Theory," and practical tips for living in Washington. Other TP and TP linked groups seeking to implant their views on the new members through some kind of orientation are the Tea Party Patriots, the Claremont Institute (a conservative California think tank), and Americans for Prosperity. Interestingly, according to news reports, a dispute has arisen between the Patriots group and the Claremont Institute with the former accusing the latter of falsely claiming to be the official orientation organization for the new TP legislators.

In sum, who co-opts whom (establishment GOP v Tea Party) in the new Congress will take some time to determine. My bet is on the establishment which, through the re-election of many long time incumbents, controls the power structure (at least in this House), meaning the leadership positions as well as the powerful committee and subcommittee chairs. But, through the orientation programs of those representing or pretending to represent the so-called grass roots Tea Party activists, various organizations are already at work to implant their ideological/policy agendas into the new Congress. The one thing you can be sure of, these TP or TP-linked groups are not teaching new members the old axiom of the one-time, legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn: "To get along, go along."