Establishment GOP Teams With the Left To Defeat Tea Party Challengers

Not only does a significant New York Times story put former GOP Congressman Steven C. LaTourette in the hot seat, Tangled Role in G.O.P. War Over Tea Party the item demonstrates how the GOP’s big money, or corporate culture in Washington results in all but one-party rule, as liberal and moderate Republicans team up with Democrats and leftists to subvert the will of the GOP base.

In the year since he stepped down from Congress, Steven C. LaTourette, a Republican from Ohio, has emerged as one of the top generals in the establishment Republicans’ war against the Tea Party.

Not only that, it has enabled Tourette to cash in big time on his political connections, while potentially running afoul of ethics rules covering former members of Congress.

It is a role that has benefited the Main Street Partnership, a corporate-backed advocacy group he runs, and its effort to raise millions of dollars to protect centrist Republicans from Tea Party challengers. It has also helped draw clients to a separate lobbying office Mr. LaTourette and his wife have set up across the street from the Capitol.

Mr. LaTourette, who stepped down after 18 years in the House, citing his frustration with the bitter partisanship on Capitol Hill, said that any suggestion that his role in championing centrist Republicans is driven by financial self-interest or violated the lobbying ban “is just nonsense.” And he said any encounter he has had with lawmakers has not had the “intent to influence official action,” which is specifically banned.

As demonstrated here, the Times consulted four D.C. ethics lawyers and all four expressed concern over Tourette’s actions.

“We advise against any interfacing on substance with sitting congressmen and staff,” said Mr. Gross, one of four prominent Washington ethics lawyers who reviewed Mr. LaTourette’s recent interactions with lawmakers. All four said they found them troubling.

For his part, Tourette claims to want “his” party back, a seemngly strange claim for an individual who gave up elected office as a member of said party. Perhaps he only wants his party back if it comes with a wheel barrow full of cash in the process.

“We want our party back,” Mr. LaTourette said in an interview.

Be sure and read the entire item here: via Tangled Role in G.O.P. War Over Tea Party – NYTimes.com. Then, pop over to the National Journal and read how members of the establishment GOP are teaming up with the Left in the form of Labor Unions to defeat Tea Party candidates.

Guess Who’s Funding the Republican Civil WarLabor unions.

And they’re doing it through a pro-business Republican PAC.

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