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No Illinois GOP members part of powerful conservative House Freedom Caucus

Members of the House GOP are said to be stunned after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy unexpectedly withdrew his bid to succeed retiring House Speaker John Boehner.

McCarthy needed 218 votes among House members to move into the House Speakership - the third spot in the presidency succession line. The Majority Leader appeared confident that he had the 218 needed to be the next Speaker, but a small group of conservative members chose Wednesday night to throw their support behind Florida Congressman Daniel Webster.

Those votes moving to Webster endangered McCarthy’s win. The 30 to 40 members of the House Republicans are called the “House Freedom Caucus,” group described in the Wall Street Journal as “a small but smart and strategic group.”

And, according to a published list, not one Republican from Illinois is a part of the conservative Republican “House Freedom Caucus.” […]

“You have to be a rock solid limited government conservative to be invited. Nobody in the Illinois delegation is even remotely close to conservative enough to be invited in,” [former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh] said. “Sad.”

* Congressman Kinzinger isn’t a fan…

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon recently has begun emphasizing his view that, as he put it in an appearance before Crain’s editorial board Oct. 2, the national GOP and some House Republicans “are alienating the very people we need to win.”

Kinzinger underlined a series of policy views that will rankle the hard right, including advocating a “path to legalization” for immigrants who are here illegally, opposing a government shutdown over funding for Planned Parenthood, renewing funding for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and calling for “an adult conversation” about whether there should be a hike in the gasoline tax to pay for road and other transportation projects.

Then he twisted the knife a little: “I don’t call them the Freedom Caucus,” he said, referring to a group of about four dozen very conservative House members who finally got their wish last week when Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation. “They’re the ’so-called Freedom Caucus’.”

Yes, this is a national politics post, but you know how I feel about national political “debates,” so keep a civil tongue in your head and in your typing fingers. Thanks, even though I don’t quite know why your tongue would be in your fingers. That’s gross. Take your tongue outta your fingers - unless it’s civil.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 2:55 pm

Comments

The House Republicans have been the most riveting, entertaining, guilty-pleasure watching, show in town for the past several weeks. I cannot stop watching!! Today was just icing on the cake for me. Please, House Republicans, keep the party going!!

Comment by L.A. Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:00 pm
Nose. Spite. Face.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:02 pm
Except for the current governor, Illinois doesn’t have any GOP loons making news right now. We’re just not a conservative state.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:02 pm
If they go off the cliff on Nov 5th — and hit the debt limit without a deal — the frustration would certainly — I think, at least — have an impact here if there’s still no budget.

Comment by Frenchie Mendoza Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:03 pm
Adam Kinzinger is establishing himself as a leader not only in Illinois, but on the national level. Good for him for standing up to the bullies in the minority of his party.

Comment by phocion Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:05 pm
“No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:08 pm
Wonder if Roskam tries to get himself drafted for Speaker with McCarthy bowing out.

Comment by hisgirlfriday Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:09 pm
The Illinois delegation is waiting for McCarter to arrive then he will lead them forth and slay liberals and establish a “real conservative government” which the Illinois Review gang will be proud of.

Comment by Give Me A Break Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:13 pm
It seems like it is almost a daily occurrence. Some Fox News type, some GOP presidential candidate, some right wing “personality” makes some sort of goofy, off-the-wall statement and then for the next several days others of a like mind spend an inordinate amount of time trying to explain it away, walk it back, or make some sort of excuse. And yet the faithful really believe they are gonna win the White House. Well, lemme tell ya buddy, I gotta bridge in Arizona……

Comment by Deep South Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:13 pm
Repubs are just running off people like me with their kooky far-right agenda.

Comment by downstate commissioner Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:13 pm
Good for Congressman Kinzinger on saying what I’ve been thinking all along. He’s 100% correct. The far-right seems to be willfully ignorant of this, but if the GOP wants to appeal to younger voters, women, minorities, etc. they have to actually adopt some policies popular with those groups!

Comment by Carolina Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:15 pm
Gee.. what would we all do without the Export-Import Bank? How will Boeing ever be able to sell plains to China without ripping off the taxpayers? If Adam Kinzinger wants to be a lobbyist : why not join a lobbying shop?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/09/23/china-buy-300-boeing-planes/72681578/

Comment by Steve Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:15 pm
Almost would have bet that Mike Bost was a part of the Freedom Caucus. And the reference previous about McCarter was telling.

Comment by illini Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:18 pm
Never thought I would say this, but I am going to miss Speaker Boehner. He is starting to look like a voice of competence and moderation.

Comment by Guzzlepot Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:19 pm
On the local level. If the Repubs shut down the federal government and people blame them for it, there is a good chance they will start blaming local Repubs and Rauner for the difficulties on the state level. And if that happens $60 million won’t help them much if at all.

Comment by Guzzlepot Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:22 pm
Ten years ago Peter Roskam was smack in the middle of “conservative” Republicans in the House. Now the Freedom Caucus won’t have him, because he’s “not remotely close to conservative enough?”

That’s a quick change. And a new definition of the term.

They sound closer to the 1850’s destroy-the-Union crowd, than to 20th Century Conservatives.

National Review is positioning Roskam as a currently defined “moderate” that the Freedom guys might find acceptable. Remember, that caucus is still not the majority.

Comment by walker Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:22 pm
I made an earlier post on another of Rich’s threads about being troubled by the fact that both sides are moving towards the fringes that would have been more appropriate for this thread. I didn’t want to sound like a partisan but it amazes me that such a large faction of the Republican party has moved so far to the right. By today’s standard, Ronald Reagan would be considered a liberal.

Comment by Stones Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:34 pm
Gotta love Deadbeat Joe as a spox for the whacks

Comment by Anonin' Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:36 pm
I am totally cool with this….

Comment by Oneman Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 3:38 pm
The gulf between this Freedom Caucus and our state Republicans is probably wider than the gulf between our Republicans and state Democrats. Not a bad thing at all.

Comment by Wensicia Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:01 pm
Oh, how Aaron Schock must be kicking himself at the opportunities he might have had…

He helped campaign/fundraise to get Daniel Webster (FL) elected back in 2010 - (the only reason Webster’s name is familiar to me, because I was ticked that Schock was spending time traveling to FL and TX to campaign and not available for debates in his own campaign district).

Speaker of the House…that has a much better ring to it than Inmate #89963

Comment by morgan Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:05 pm
@Stones - This is just more fallout from citizens united. Unlimited opaque pools of money pouring into our politics in haphazard fashion is giving us factions where organized ideologically coherent political parties once existed. This is not good for government at all.

I disagree though at both parties being lumped together in false equivalence. Democrats may not like Hillary as a candidate or some of Obama’s policies but that’s not the same thing as being fundamentally incapable of cooperating in governance. the freedom caucus is a bunch of anarchists it seems to me.

Comment by hisgirlfriday Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:11 pm
(You still on post-op pain meds, Rich? Tongue in the fingers?)

Comment by Groundhog Day Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:13 pm
Geez, Kinzinger doesn’t pass tne alleged “conservative” purity test among the Grand Inquisitors. Unbelievable.

Rolling Stone had an interesting piece recently in which they interviewed Freedom Caucus members extensively.

They cheerfully reject the Reagan 80% rule. It’s all or nothing, all the time, or they go to the mattresses against other Republicans.

They have a strategy for changing the Republican Party. It’s the same one the League of Shadows had for Gotham City in “Batman Begins.”

If you let the tail wag the dog, it will. Bipartisan governance, in which you isolate the extremes on either ends, was not that unusual in the past.

Comment by Wordslinger Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:18 pm
@hisgirlfriday

I mention both because it would have been laughable to have a Bernie Sanders as a viable candidate for the Presidency (or Donald Trump) for that matter. Let’s face it there are extremists in both camps.

Comment by Stones Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:25 pm
===Wonder if Roskam tries to get himself drafted for Speaker with McCarthy bowing out.

Roskam is smarter than that. It’s a no win job right now.

Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:26 pm
this shows the oddity of US politics and a “2″ party system. what we really have is like many countries…. 5 or more identifiable parties…. BUT we force those 5 into just two parties for a variety of vagaries relating to our system. imagine if we had these folks spereated into different parties…. and then they needed to form colitions in order to have wprking governments… such systems tend to seperate out the fringes on both ends and leave them ineffective….

Comment by Ghost Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:38 pm
On Meet the Press Daily, Hugh Hewitt just said that Peter Roskam is a rising star, and he predicts that Roskam is the next House Speaker. Oh, Hewitt also said that Roskam was once Speaker of the Illinois House. Thats rich.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:40 pm
I may have my tongue in my fingers here, but…

I think the establishment should support whomever the so-called freedom caucus puts forth. Let them try to govern for a little over a year. Watch the political bomb throwers attempt to govern than just saying ridiculous things like they usually do.

I’ll have to get my popcorn and butter while I watch that circus…

Comment by a modest proposal Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:41 pm
—-On Meet the Press Daily, Hugh Hewitt just said that Peter Roskam is a rising star, and he predicts that Roskam is the next House Speaker. Oh, Hewitt also said that Roskam was once Speaker of the Illinois House. Thats rich.

It’s Hugh Hewitt. What do you want? The question should be why was he on Meet the Press.

Comment by ArchPundit Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:41 pm
===he predicts that Roskam is the next House Speaker===

Hey, if Roskam is capable of magically regrowing the hair on his formerly balding head, perhaps anything is possible.

Comment by TwoFeetThick Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:53 pm
As a lifelong and active Republican, I can say that this is one of the prouder moments for the GOP in Illinois. Any group that is too conservative for Roskam, Hultgren and Kinzinger scares the crap out of me.

The “Freedom” Caucus is a fringe group that has managed to leverage hatred for those who dare disagree with them into a little bit of political power. History students will recognize this tactic.

As for Kinzinger, in his first term, may people thought he was a lightweight. Then he began to stand tall against the radical right and showed his depth, especially on foreign policy. He is becoming very highly regarded in DC.

Comment by Adam Smith Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:54 pm
Maybe the ultra right wing wins, like raunner is trying, maybe not. We’ll all be better off if ‘not’ is the answer. A tiny minority swingin’ the ax for all is not a good thing.

Comment by sal-says Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 4:55 pm
===”We will not mince words — this is the political equivalent of a dumpster fire,” said Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Securities. “We are increasing our odds from 30 percent to 40 percent for some kind of accident that would keep Congress from raising the debt ceiling in time due to brinkmanship, procrastination or political gridlock.”===

I don’t care if the House Republicans want to destroy themselves, just don’t take the rest of the country down with you.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/wall-street-rattled-by-house-gop-bedlam-214572#ixzz3o0PF2eFa

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 5:08 pm
We are at a point in our history where the extremes on both sides are gaining prominence. This rise is from several factors, and all center on dissatisfaction with Government and policies. These fringes just did not show up and take a job, they were elected. Most campaigned on the actions they are taking now.

I look at what we have here with a Governor elected because he wasn’t the other guy, and I see how people like Trump are riding a wave, a wave that may take one of them to the White House. And why? Because they aren’t the other guys. It would be as if Rauner was elected President, but without the overt hatred of Unions. Do you think the Country is ready for what we are seeing at a State level?

Comment by FormerParatrooper Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 5:45 pm
@ Paratrooper

Clearly not as evidenced by Scott Walkers withdrawal from the race.

Comment by Stones Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 6:02 pm
Like Rauner, these so called “conservative purists”or mothing but hypocrits who prescribe to the theory…”its only pork when its in someone elses district.similar to lidsey graham voting against hurricane relief but yet pleading for flood relief. Go figure.

Comment by blue dog dem Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 6:49 pm
The problem with the Republican Party remains that their base and their principal donors are extremists, centered around the John Birch-derived Koch core. The mainstreamers and conservatives have given up, in the face of overwhelming odds from the change in court interpretation of campaign finance law, and the moderates have switched to the Democrats. The current core of the GOP has no place in a democracy, and the still relatively sensible majority of elected officials needs to smell the coffee rather than pander to the revolutionaries. Unless they can take back the GOP, we need a new center-right party, and fast, or democracy itself is in danger. But I am not optimistic because of the extent to which the donor class in this country (and others, I might add) has revolted against society. Read Christopher Lasch’s “Revolt of the Elites” from 20 years ago and throw in Citizens United, and you get some idea.

Comment by Angry Chicagoan Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 7:15 pm
If the moderate wing of the GOP produces leaders like Boehner and Hastert, it is time to start listening to others.

Comment by Different Strokes Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 10:51 pm
Kinzinger is right, maybe we can keep the GOP from being the laughing stock of the world

Comment by the old man Thursday, Oct 8, 15 @ 11:28 pm
The real problem with the Republican caucus is the adherence to that stupid Hastert Rule. A smart leader would get rid of that, work both sides of the aisle and become a real transformative leader.

As if…

Comment by chiatty Friday, Oct 9, 15 @ 8:58 am
“Freedom Caucus” is like “right to work”. It doesn’t exist.

Freedom to the “Freedom Caucus” means Government Regulation of your personal life….unless it fits in with their “xtian” lifestyle.

Comment by Jack Stephens Friday, Oct 9, 15 @ 9:06 am