The GOP civil war has pit Karl Rove versus the Tea Party and Chris Christie versus CPAC. But until now, this battle primarily has been the purview of the establishment versus the established anti-establishment. But no longer. Now with “Primary My Congressman!” you can join in the fun.
The website is the brainchild—and we use the term loosely—of the far right Club for Growth, which plays Harry to The Heritage Foundation’s Lloyd among conservatives’ orthodoxy cops.
Club for Growth’s president, former Rep. Chris Chocola, announced the website Wednesday, saying:
“The Republicans helped pass billions of dollars in tax increases and they have repeatedly voted against efforts by fiscal conservatives to limit government. PrimaryMyCongressman.com will serve as a tool to hold opponents of economic freedom and limited government accountable for their actions.”
The way it works is, you head to the website and review the scorecards for the nine listed RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). Or, if you have a different fifth column in mind, suggest someone of your own.
For instance, let’s look at one of the nine: Rep. Steve Palazzo of Mississippi.
Rep. Palazzo stands charged of many crimes against the state, including the following:
Palazzo also did a 180-degree flip-flop on a disaster relief bill for Hurricane Sandy. After voting against the first batch of un-paid for bailout of the flood insurance program, Palazzo turned around and voted for $50 billion in un-paid for, pork-filled “emergency” spending.
Disgusting.
Users who find Rep. Palazzo guilty of RINO-ing are invited to cast him into the Phantom Zone via the “Recommend an Opponent” button. Which opponent? Who knows. The point of this exercise isn’t to think things through: Club for Growth’s only required fields on this page are your name, email address and zip code.
Oh, and if you want to sent them some cash, that’d be fine, too. In other words, this is more about building up their donor network than addressing the alleged sins of anyone else listed on the website. This is actually par for the course for Club for Growth. Including its (technically non-coordinated) super PAC and PAC, the group spent more than twice as much against Republicans as it did either for them or against Democrats in 2012. Palazzo, we should point out, voted against the initial $9.7 billion Sandy funding. But then changed his mind on the much larger $50 billion package after touring the damaged area. RINOS, it seems, do a little more research than their opponents. Rep. Palazzo’s office did not reply to our request for comment.
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