SHE WON'T GO!
An interesting internal squabble/rare moment of honesty this week.
Right Wing thinkhole The Heritage Foundation got slammed by Republican lawmakers because its “grassroots” conservative pressure group got a little too pressure-y:
“Heritage Action is a self-interested fundraising organization … a worthless organization to the conservative movement,” Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Ky.) told the conservative Daily Caller in a Web interview earlier this week.
Davis went on to insinuate that Heritage Action and other groups are manipulating conservative voters.
“A lot of people who may be conservative are also profiting off the anger they are creating outside,” Davis said.
As Roll Call notes, Heritage is “one of the oldest and most influential sources of conservative thought in the United States.”
No word yet on when Davis will likewise admit that FreedomWorks and various other groups are also manipulating conservative voters (or just plain taking advantage of people and preying on their insecurities), but at least Geofferson is not alone in the Republican Awareness Club:
Leadership aides — who mostly agreed with Davis’ assessment — explained there are several key differences between Heritage Action and other, more established organizations.
Groups such as the National Rifle Association and National Taxpayers Union built their political brands in part on lawmaker accountability programs such as annual scorecards that rank Members’ ideological fealty.
But Heritage Action and a number of relatively new tea-party-affiliated organizations have yet to demonstrate the type of muscle their older brethren have used not only to influence legislation but also to target for defeat lawmakers who have crossed them.
“These [established] groups have a record of making sure their ratings count on election days,” a GOP leadership aide said, arguing that Heritage Action has not displayed the sort of clout with voters that would make it a major factor inside the Beltway.
The NRA and the NTU are issue-based pressure groups that represent specific elements of the Conservative platform. Heritage, FreedomWorks and other Tea Party groups tend to be far less specific and heavily funded by corporations and their bullying maneuvers may well overplay their ability to deliver results. Geoff admitting the idiocy of some of these groups probably won’t change the overall tenor of the GOP’s strategy but, as they say, admitting you have a problem is the first step.
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