Texas retailers back GOP War on Women

It's not just Macy's and Kroger; Gerland's and Brookshire Brothers and others are also on board with the Republican misogyny.

A front-page piece in Tuesday’s Houston Chronicle shedding light on how mega-retailers the likes of Macy’s and Kroger lobbied Gov. Rick Perry to put the kibosh on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is resulting in some public fallout for the companies.

The governor vetoed the Texas version of the equal-pay-for-women legislation -- passed by the Texas Legislature with GOP support at the end of the regular session in June -- after receiving written requests to do so from several retail corporations and associated industry groups. Let's excerpt the most revealing part of the article for those who can't climb over the paywall...

Also writing to seek a veto were representatives of Macy's, the Houston grocery company Gerland Corp., Brookshire Grocery Company, Market Basket, the Texas Association of Business and the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

HEB is a member of the Texas Retailers Association, but lobbyist Rusty Kelley said the company did not lobby against the bill.

The letters to Perry provide a behind-the-scene glimpse of the legislative process. Entities such as the Texas Retailers Association can seek a gubernatorial veto without the knowledge of sponsors. Thompson and her Senate counterpart, Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, say they were blind-sided by Perry's veto and the retailers' opposition.

Veteran Austin lobbyist Bill Miller said seeking a gubernatorial veto is a common lobby tactic. "That's a smart play. You don't fade the heat (by publicly opposing a bill) on the front end and you win on the back end." He said that, except for the Chronicle's open records request, "no one would be the wiser. You do what you gotta do to protect your client."

To refresh your memory, Bill Miller is a mostly-Republican political consultant. He is co-founder of HillCo Partners, which was previously mentioned here in regard to their efforts to kill "sanctuary cities" legislation in the 2011 legislative session.

(Digression: this is a pluperfect example of how to play both sides against the middle. You do what you gotta do to protect your corporate client who writes you large checks for dispensing your political wisdom. Even when it screws over Texans and politicians of both political parties. Hey, that's -- allegedly -- a smart play.)

On Wednesday, the liberal group Progress Texas started an online boycott of Macy’s and Kroger, asking folks to sign on and refrain from shopping at the stores until they support “equal pay for equal work.”

Citing the Chron’s story, Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, followed hours later by announcing that she’s cancelling an appearance at the Macy’s at the Galleria. Garcia was set to kick-off the 2013 annual Texas sales tax holiday, according to her office.

The boycott may be expanding this morning to the predominantly East Texas grocers named above.

This is a BFD. Know why?

Because women in Texas are already losing their health clinics. They have all but lost the right to choose whether or not to give birth. In a state with already criminally low wages for so many of its residents, Texas Republicans (mostly through their agents outside the Legislature, to be clear) are making sure that Texas women do not receive equal pay for the same work that men do. Both of these circumstances would especially be the case in East Texas, where clinic options -- and grocery-shopping options -- were few and far between before all this.

You have to hope that Texas women -- in particular those living  in East Texas who might have been previously inclined to vote R -- are clearly getting the message the Republicans are sending them. And that message is: "We Don't Give a Shit About You."

Update: More from Burnt Orange and from Texas Leftist, with Houston-area store locator maps of the offending retailers.

No debate about the number of debates, or who should be included

Kuffner is surprisingly wrong, while Campos is just being consistent. Both reference the Houston Chronicle's op-ed on mayoral debates, with an excerpt from the newspaper the third of the following.

It’s hardly clear to me that having candidates beyond Mayor Parker and Ben Hall in a debate will yield a “constructive conversation”. The candidates not named Parker or Hall would have to be running constructive campaigns for there to be some chance of that happening, and so far the evidence for that is lacking. The principle of democracy argues in favor of inclusiveness, but the principle of imparting useful information to as many voters as possible argues for limiting the debate to those that have something useful to say.

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I totally disagree with their take to include all the candidates in the debates.  That would be a waste of everybody’s time. 

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Houston's future is too important to limit the mayor's race to one debate, and we're far too diverse to restrict debates to an incumbent and a self-funded millionaire challenger. Putting multiple candidates on stage will provide a panoply of perspectives and a constructive conversation about our city's needs. Municipal issues don't always make for the most exciting discussions, but the horse-race atmosphere of elections provides a more compelling backdrop for topics like the city budget.

While we hope Ben Hall will use the debates to explain why he is spending his personal fortune on an uphill battle to unseat the mayor, the time for one-on-one debates is during a runoff. The general election should provide voters with multiple options for what our future will look like. Whether the race for mayor, controller or city council seats, voters are best served when candidates debate the issues and define what it means to be a city that is building forever.

==========

I've posted a response to both men at their respective blogs, but I'll expand on what I said there in case the comments don't make, or remain in, the light of day.

We cannot have a functioning democracy where pundits and insiders declare who gets to be included in or excluded from public debate fora. Paying the filing fee -- or submitting the required signatures -- should be enough to grant access to the public conversation. If you want to take note of those organizations who host debates without including all ballot-qualified candidates -- which is their prerogative but is just as wrong -- then watch this space for future developments.

The people who make a living in politics, those who want to curry favor with elected officials and their staff and advisors, and all other assorted lackeys, lickspittles, and hangers-on DO NOT GET, ARE NOT ENTITLED (yes, I'm shouting now) to set the ground rules with regard to who is allowed to participate in the democratic process. Really, it's as simple as that.

Anybody who agrees with me should look askance at people like that. Anybody who disagrees can go get fucked. In their arse.

Oh, one more dumbass thing from Campos.

Excuse me, but when did Ron Green become controversial?  Was he one of the fellas that ran on Highway 288 and blocked traffic?  Does he use PEDs?  I don’t know about that.

Of course you don't, you jackass moron. It's not like it was in the newspaper or anything.

GOP fever shows no sign of breaking

-- Former chair of the Republican Party of Texas Cathie Adams:

Speaking with Christian radio host Rick Wiles last week in an exchange first captured by Right Wing Watch, Adams decried a biometric scanning proposal present in immigration reform legislation already passed by the Senate, claiming that it would give amnesty to people from Muslim countries who "are not here with the best intentions for America."

When Wiles decried a "biometric scanning" proposal present in the Senate's bill, Adams suggested that such a plan would manifest itself by giving "lost foreigners" the sort of "mark of the beast" cited in End Times prophecies.

"And, of course, we know in biblical prophecy that that is the End Times," Adams said of the initiative. "That is going to be the brand either on our foreheads or on the back of our hands. That is demonic through and through. That is End Times prophecy. There is no question about that."

-- House Minority Leader Eric Can'tor, challenged by no less than Fox New host Chris Wallace:

“You talk about creating jobs, you talk about growing the economy, but you have spent the last week in the House on passing your agenda, a series of bills called Stop Government Abuse,” Wallace said. “Is what you’ve been doing the best way to spend Congress’ time when you’re about to go on a recess for five full weeks?”

When Cantor tried to defend some of the laws the House had passed, including a measure to prevent “bureaucrats” from receiving bonuses, Wallace pressed him.

“Rightly or wrongly, none of these bills you’ve passed is going to become law,” Wallace said. “Your own members say they’re not going to pass the Senate, the president won’t sign them. Let’s talk reality. You haven’t passed the farm bill. You’ve only passed four of the twelve appropriations bills you’re supposed to pass. We face a government shutdown and a debt limit in the fall. Is this the best way to spend your time, passing bills that aren’t going to become law?”

“You’ve got the president out giving campaign speeches again, as if we’re in the middle of the election again,” Cantor objected.

“Tend to your own knitting,” Wallace replied. “You could pass a farm bill. You have the power of the purse! Only four of the twelve appropriation bills have even passed. Why not do what the House is supposed to do?”

When you have lost Fox, you've lost the country. More...

Cantor dodged the vacation question, because he is the one who designed the schedule. The 126-day 2013 House work schedule was his idea. Of course, he is not going to take responsibility for only leaving 9 legislative days out of two months to avoid a government shutdown. House Republicans want that confrontation. Even though the manufactured crisis strategy hasn’t worked for two years, they are going to go back to that well again.  

Wonkette always does it better.

“Why is Congress full of morons, Eric Cantor? Why does it suck so very very hard, Eric Cantor? Why is attempting to repeal Obamacare your go-to solution for just about every pressing problem facing the American people, Eric Cantor? Aren’t we heading for a major disaster because you guys are too busy playing grabass to actually get down to the work of real governance?”

Update: Even Politifact found its pants were on fire trying to fact-check (sic) Cantor's remarks.

-- Texas agriculture commissioner candidate Eric Opiela:

He says our Texas way of life is under attack. This land, Texas, is where he learned the value of hard work.

That Obama and his administration will stop at nothing to further their radical agenda. He doesn’t say what the radical agenda is.

But it’s why he’s running for Agriculture Commissioner. To fight the federal government.

Eric Opiela is concerned about future generations. Like his son Ryan. But apparently not his daughter.

It’s Eric Opiela’s Texas. It’s a man’s world.

Get used to that "Fightin' Obama" bullshit from every single Republican running for office, including Houston city council. It's all they have to run on.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance thinks that the Legislature is once, twice, three times a fiasco as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff has an update on BGTX and a few words about what else is needed to turn Texas blue.

Horwitz at Texpatriate notes that the Houston mayoral election has been heating up, criticizing both Annise Parker and Ben Hall in the process.

In a metro area that gained 1.2 million people in just 10 years, new stuff has got to be built somewhere, right? But as more and more neighborhoods wage futile turf wars with developers, Texas Leftist is seeing the signs that Houstonians might be ready for real zoning laws.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw explains what Ted Cruz doesnot know or want to understand about Obamacare. Check out: Ted Cruz is Dead Wrong on Obamacare.

In redacted documents released as part of an FOI request, the FBI was aware of a plot involving snipers directed at the leaders of Occupy Houston in 2011. What isn't revealed in the post at PDiddie's Brains and Eggs is to whom the snipers were connected: law enforcement, or agents of those opposed to Occupy.

Whether it's through gerrymandered districts, impotent opposition, lack of citizen participation, or big money in elections, the far right of the Texas GOP runs our state. WCNews at Eye on Williamson says because of that Texas is on the road to nowhere.

===================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Christina Gorczynski explains why members of the LGBTQ community should care about reproductive rights.

Concerned Citizens would like for Sen. Wendy Davis to stay put and run for re-election in SD10.

Harold Cook just wants her not to run for Lt. Governor.

Texas Watch looks back at HB4 from 2003, "a sprawling piece of legislation that upended and undercut myriad aspects of the Texas civil justice system".

Equality Texas does not want the killer of Paul Broussard to get parole.

Nonsequiteuse ponders the deeper meaning of repro-socialism.

Jason Stanford would like for the Legislature to make like Marvin K. Mooney and please go now.

2014: a year for female political candidates

And not just because of Hillary Clinton or even Wendy Davis. Here's an update on the Kentucky Senate contest, where Mitch McConnell is flailing. Charlie Cook:

In the wake of two polls that show the race between Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes within the margin of error, the race moves to the Toss Up column. Grimes was ahead of McConnell in both surveys; one was conducted by the Mellman Group for the Grimes campaign, and the other was taken by Public Policy Polling.

And from Grimes' Wiki page...

In 2010, Grimes announced her candidacy for the office of Secretary of State of Kentucky, left open by term-limited incumbent Republican Trey Grayson. When Grayson resigned to accept a position at the Harvard Institute of Politics, Governor Steve Beshear appointed Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker over Grimes to fill the rest of Grayson's term in office. Despite this, Grimes stayed in the race and defeated Walker by a double digit margin in the May primary.

She went on to face Republican businessman and former Senate candidate Bill Johnson. A main aspect of the campaign was Grimes' opposition to Johnson's proposal to require photo IDs in order to vote. Grimes argued this would take away voting rights from the homeless among others. She also became well known through commercials that showed her elderly grandmothers.

Grimes defeated Johnson with over 60% of the vote. She received a higher percentage of the vote than any other Kentucky statewide Democratic candidate during the 2011 elections and has received much speculation over her possible political future.

Keep in mind that 2010 was a red wave election cycle. Democrats got washed out all over the country (not just in Texas). Grimes' election to KySoS came a year later, when the Tea Party antics were just starting to be felt and understood. So she's good -- it took some sand to run for office as a Dem in a southern state in 2011 -- but she's also lucky. Timing being everything, Alison Grimes is certainly smart enough to put herself in the right place at the right time. That could very well hold true again in 2014. Here's a Politico article with more.

“The goal is not just (to keep it) close, the goal is to win,” Grimes told POLITICO.

And Grimes warned that she is “not going to be bullied” by McConnell’s tough campaign tactics, adding that she is prepared to fight the onslaught of GOP attacks attempting to link her to President Barack Obama, who is deeply unpopular in the Bluegrass State.

“I think the voters of Kentucky are tired of that play,” Grimes said, speaking on her campaign bus. “It seems as if Sen. McConnell wants to run against anyone but me, including the president, the Senate majority leader, leader (Nancy) Pelosi. And, unfortunately, I’m the one who filed my paperwork.”

That's exactly how every single Democrat running against a Republican running against Obama -- which is all of them -- ought to strike back. I'm just hoping Wendy Davis is watching Alison Grimes and her campaign closely.

FWIW, I am reading from KY Dems on another discussion board that they think the wealthy TeaBagger challenging McConnell in the GOP primary has a better chance of winning that Senate seat than does Grimes. That's the usual defeatist attitude we see so often from Texas Democrats. I think it's a dynamic still in play, as Texas Ds have just one candidate for statewide office at this posting.

Women elected to office in 2013 and 2014 are going to make the difference in the kind of state and nation we live in going forward. At least so that we don't have to read any more stories like this.

Update:

"If the doctors told Sen. McConnell he had a kidney stone, he would refuse to pass it."

By God, that's how you fight back.

Sunday Extended Length Funnies

"Okay, let’s just be honest now. The House is clearly where things go to die. It's where parents are going to start telling their kids their aging pets went. 'Oh, Fluffy's fine, darling. She just got stuck in committee.'"

-- John Oliver

"Sunday, on his way home from Brazil, Pope Francis said it was not his job to judge gays. He said that's what the Tony Awards are for."

-- Jay Leno

"Anthony Weiner's campaign manager quit. He says he's applying for a much less stressful job that has a better chance of success. He's trying to get Paula Deen elected president of BET."

-- Craig Ferguson

"Some jackass vandalized the Lincoln Memorial. Who hates the Lincoln Memorial? Democrats love it because it honors the man who freed the slaves. And Republicans love it because it just sits there and does nothing. If it could cry and chain smoke, it would be John Boehner."

-- Bill Maher

Burying the lede

I was of the mind that one of the biggest reveals in the Texas Observer's piece on misogyny in the Lege was well down in the story, and sure enough the NCRM beat me to it.

Even the most powerful women in the Legislature experience it. When I started interviewing women lawmakers, they all—Republican and Democrat, House and Senate, rural and urban—said that being a woman in the statehouse is more difficult than being a man. Some told of senators ogling women on the Senate floor or watching porn on iPads and on state-owned computers, of legislators hitting on female staffers or using them to help them meet women, and of hundreds of little comments in public and private that women had to brush off to go about their day. Some said they often felt marginalized and not listened to—that the sexism in the Legislature made their jobs harder and, at times, produced public policy hostile to women.

Of all of the various actions that can get a person's employment in the private sector terminated, surfing porn at work is pretty much at the top of the list. It doesn't require eyewitness testimony; there's no he said/she said BS, the offender can't say it never happened. When former Houston Metro chairman George Greanias went to Rentboy.com on his personal laptop late one night at the office, he was nailed for it. As bright a man as he was, he didn't understand the whole VPN login-IT audit trail thing.

All of the bad behavior described in that article is (should be) zero-tolerance, but a state employee or elected official using taxpayer-funded computers, servers, IPs, etc. for their personal sexual titillation ought to be grounds for immediate dismissal. No warnings, no waiting until the next election.

It's at least as serious as forging timestamps on roll call votes, but then again I don't see Attorney General Greg Abbott investigating that either.

A real good question for religious conservatives to ask the Three TeaBaggers running to replace Abbott in the AG office: "Do you support or oppose state legislators, staff, etc. using their computers and tablets to look at porn?"

Because at least one of them is bound to oppose it strongly enough to be willing to make an example of someone.

Update: A solid take on how to fix these problems from nonsequiteuse.

"Yeeeeeaah, if you could just finish up those..."

"... campaign finance reports, that'd be grrrreat."

-- How TPS CF reports should not be interpreted (paywall):

Democratic political consultant Mustafa Tameez said Hall might have to show more widespread support to drag Parker on stage repeatedly; Hall reported raising $2 million as of June 30, $1.7 million of that his own cash.

"Let's say Ben Hall comes out and he raises $2.2 million and he only puts in $200,000 of his own seed money," Tameez said. "Then Parker's more likely to have multiple debates with him because he has substantial support and she wants to clarify her positions. All challengers want to take it to the incumbent and point out one of the 10 things that are wrong with the city at no expense to themselves, and no incumbent would ever allow that."

Tameez -- considered one of the city's premier political advisors, certainly a heavy player in the local insiders' clique --  seems to be suggesting to Mayor Parker that she execute the Rick Perry 2010 strategy of avoiding debates. Would that really be the best thing for her to do?

Update: Not to be outdone, Campos tops that for stupid.

Commentary doesn’t want to hear the other candidates in a debate and I’m thinking most folks don’t either.  I’m betting The Mayor’s Campaign didn’t do a whole lot of opposition research on the other folks like they did on Hall so don’t throw in that the other candidates have to participate.  Plus they haven’t staffed up and they haven’t plunked down a couple of mil of their own dough into the race.

Commentary is, as usual, a fucking moron. If there is anybody left in this town taking anything he says seriously, then they deserve what they get.

-- How CF reports should be interpreted (and then used by a political campaign):

Leave it to a college paper to scoop the bloggers on this , but it is definitely worth a read. Many of my fellow bloggers, me included, posted fundraising totals from candidates, including those in the running for District I. I had noticed a few individual snarks on Facebook toward some of the candidate totals, but nothing newsworthy or in a press release from other candidates. The college paper, The Venture, found something.

“As you can see from the finance reports, Mr. Mendez has a number of overvalued in-kind donations, lots of self-funding and he only has $12,000 cash on hand. To that end, alarm bells are ringing throughout District I because it appears he burned through the cash he allegedly raised. The hard working men and women of District I don’t spend money like that,” said Robert Gallegos, who is one of the candidates running against Mendez in District I.

Mendez’s campaign manager, Joaquin Martinez, did not provide a response for this story before deadline.

Looks like a well-worded direct hit by Gallegos on that one, stating that fundraising will not make the difference, rather, experience in the district will -- a theme on which he is running.

Precisely right.

So, to summarize (and despite how this post may have been interpreted): there's not anything inherently wrong with the reporting of campaign fundraising and spending; there is something wrong with how it is analyzed, and who is doing the analyzing.

Agendas coming out to play and all that.

FBI knew about snipers aimed at Occupy Houston

But snipers affiliated with whom? Do you feel safer now?

As the Occupy Houston movement gained steam in 2011, the FBI was aware of a plan to use snipers to take out leaders of the movement, according to FBI documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The highly redacted documents do not point to any FBI involvement in the plan. Agency spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said that it's premature to draw conclusions about the documents because the publicly released information is incomplete.

The documents do raise questions about how much the FBI knew about the plot, said Houston attorney Paul Kennedy, who represented several of the Occupy protesters in misdemeanor cases.

In an email Wednesday, Dunlap said the agency investigates hundreds of such threats, and "rest assured if the FBI was aware of credible and specific information involving a murder plot, law enforcement would have responded with appropriate action."

Dunlap stated the documents "were redacted in several places pursuant to privacy laws that govern the release of such information." She cautioned against "drawing conclusions from FOIA documents, as they often contain raw data and are incomplete."

Kennedy obtained a copy of the FBI document, which was requested in December 2012 by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, and has posted it on his blog.

You may recall that I spent some activist time down at City Hall at the birthing of Occupy Houston. From Kennedy's post...

Just how scared of the Occupy movement was the government? Or, maybe the question should be just how scared were business leaders and their lackeys in the government? The Occupy protests were a mass movement that had the potential to catch fire. That they didn't is due to the government's crackdowns and, I would argue, on the lack of a cohesive message from the movement.

The more important question is, obviously, who was behind the alleged plot to assassinate Occupy leaders in Houston? Why did the government redact any identification information about whose plot it was? Is that information redacted because it would expose confidential sources, or is it redacted because the FBI was behind the alleged plot?

The historical comparisons to Occupy mirror those of the 1932 Bonus Army, among others such as the March on Washington, which was held 50 years ago this month.

I have missed any reference to snipers and Tea Party protests over the past five years. Can anyone fill me in as to whether there were any stories about that? A cursory Google search was not helpful. I do recall seeing some guns being schlepped around by those folks at their rallies, and I think they did complain about IRS audits. Or something.

The thing that authority fears most is organic, civil, peaceful protest, witnessed again as recently as two weeks ago when Houstonians who objected to the whitewash -- a savagely appropriate word in this context -- of Trayvon Martin's murder wound up blocking traffic on a Houston freeway. (Read Mayor Parker's reaction to that here, and an account of the follow-up visit by activists with the US Attorney who offices locally here.)

If you haven't watched the Chris Hedges video I posted last week, now would be a good time to do so. His analysis of the government's intentions with respect to Occupy are spot on.

And then you might ask yourself if a discussion about the number of debates in the Houston mayoral contest, or how much money what's-his-or-her-name has raised for a city council bid, is the best conversation we can be having about politics in the nation's fourth largest city.

Update: This news about sharpshooters in Texas arrives on a grim anniversary.

Kamikaze Cruz

This article from Politico lays bare the Republican-on-Republican brutality Ted "Poop" Cruz is waging.

The Texas freshman senator and his senior aides are unleashing a barrage of attacks on their fellow Republicans for refusing to support their plan to choke off Obamacare as a condition for funding the government. Cruz’s chief of staff is lambasting fellow conservatives like Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn for serving in the “surrender caucus.” His top political strategist has compared Mitch McConnell to Barack Obama. And the senator himself has said many Republicans are “scared” to wage this fight.

Too conservative, reactionary, and obnoxious for Tom Coburn. There just isn't enough popcorn in all of Orville Redenbacher's warehouses for summer entertainment this bloody.

The essence of the clash is this: Cruz can’t comprehend why his GOP colleagues don’t welcome the fight, while more senior Republicans think the junior Texan simply doesn’t understand — or care — about the dire political consequences for their party of a government shutdown. Plus, Cruz’s critics think the plan to repeal Obamacare is destined to fail.

But worries about a shutdown are falling on deaf ears.

“There is a powerful, defeatist approach among Republicans in Washington,” Cruz told conservative radio host Dana Loesch earlier this week. “I think they’re beaten down and they’re convinced that we can’t give a fight, and they’re terrified.”

This is the stuff legends are made of. Most of those legendary figures, if history serves, came to ignominious ends (here I'm thinking of Cruz's idols Joe McCarthy and Benito Mussolini).

Cruz’s uncompromising style has won him legions of fans on the right — a fight that started earlier this year when he battled Chuck Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary, continued when he helped block House-Senate budget negotiations because of concerns over a debt ceiling hike, and intensified when he fought with Rubio and GOP senators over a bipartisan immigration bill.

[...]

A former top Senate GOP leadership aide, who asked for anonymity, said Cruz’s latest battle “isn’t about principle and it isn’t about party.”

“It’s about promoting Ted Cruz’s presidential ambitions, and he and his team are making clear that retaining the House or winning back a Senate GOP majority are all secondary to that goal,” the source said. “It’s a shortsighted and selfish political strategy but one that fellow Republicans are unfortunately having to get used to.”

“The Republican infighting is hurting our brand,” said one Senate Republican aide, who fretted that Cruz’s divisive tack would alienate voters and hurt GOP efforts to retake the Senate.

2016 is a free shot for Carnival Cruz; his eye is actually on the 2020 prize. I think he's really enjoying tearing down the GOP, to be rebuilt in his own image. Not even he thinks he can get that done in a year or two.

But this is also a #TCOT geek fight.

Privately, a number of senior GOP aides are miffed at what they see as personal jabs launched on Twitter by senior Cruz aides, including the senator’s chief of staff, Chip Roy, a former aide to John Cornyn, a Texas senator who took his name off the Lee letter last week. Those aides were unapologetic Tuesday for their public criticisms.

Roy sarcastically quipped on Twitter that it is “shocking” that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) opposes the hardball Obamacare funding tactics given that McCain is “someone talking to [Sen. Chuck] Schumer 5x a day and the White House daily.”

Coburn told The Washington Examiner, “The worst thing is being dishonest with your base about what you can accomplish, ginning everybody up and then creating disappointment."

“Since when is a promise to fight disastrous policy ‘dishonest?’” Roy tweeted in response: “No, the worst thing is giving up & leaving your base believing there is no need to be a Republican any longer.”

Deeper inside that baseball at the link, if that sort of thing floats your boat. This sure is a lot more fun than listening to Big Jolly whine about Jared Woodfill and the Harris County GOP, isn't it?

Clue to Dave: Woodfill is the least of the Republican party's problems.

Update: More on "Poop" Cruz from the Great Orange Satan. And here's a helpful bubble map of all the conservative infighting.

Update II: You'll notice I made no mention in this post to the other major battle front in this war.