Republicans Should Be Taking Aim at Democrats, Not Squabbling Among Themselves

According to an AP analysis, Republican leaders and several right wing groups are displaying "the classic signs of a political divorce." The conservative groups attack mainstream Republicans, causing the mainstreamers to question the motivation of those organizations. The groups accuse House Speaker John Boehner of having a hidden motive, thinking that he may want to move past their budget issues so he can tackle immigration legislation early next year, before the first round of 2014 primaries. The Senate Conservative lFund and Club for Growth often threaten to challenge mainstream Republicans in the primaries with conservative purists, often tea partiers who are already lining up primary opposition to GOP senior congressional leaders whose roles are often key in opposing left-leaning Democrat legislation and finding compromises that are more conservative. So, this is an extremely bad time for a "philosophical" fight inside the GOP family because there are several major federal issues that clearly favor Republicans in the lead-up to the 2014 elections. Instead of infighting over the nuances of Republicanism, all Republicans should be working together to preserve and increase their House majority and to take over the Senate. What are the major issues? ~~~~~ (1). All Republicans and conservatives must rejoice in the constitutional victory provided by US District Court Judge Richard Leon, a G. W. Bush appointee, who ruled yesterday that the NSA meta-sweep collection of internet traffic data is a violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches. Judge Leon stayed his order pending appeals. Leon concluded that the government didn't cite a single instance in which the program "actually stopped an imminent terrorist attack." He said : "I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism." His order bars the government from collecting "any telephony metadata associated with their personal Verizon [the plaintiffs have Verison accounts] accounts" and requiring the government to "destroy any such metadata in its possession." Leon reasoned : "The Fourth Amendment typically requires 'a neutral and detached authority be interposed between the police and the public,' and it is offended by 'general warrants' and laws that allow searches to be conducted 'indiscriminately and without regard to their connections with a crime....I cannot imagine a more indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely such a program infringes on 'that degree of privacy that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. Indeed I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware 'the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power, would be aghast." Leon went on to call the program "almost-Orwellian technology." The Obama administration has defended the program as a crucial tool against terrorism. ~~~~~ (2). Meanwhile, the Republican Party has a gigantic workhorse of an issue for the 2014 elections -- Americans who already have health insurance, that is 85% of Americans, blame President Obama's health care overhaul for their rising premiums and deductibles. And, a huge 75% say the rollout of coverage for the uninsured has gone poorly. This 85% of Americans, who were happy with their health insurance prior to Obamacare and who had their coverage disturbed by Obama's law, see their coverage being reduced while costs and deductibles are rising, and they say Obamacare is to blame. Nearly 4 in 5 (77%) blame the changes on Obamacare. Sixty-nine percent say their premiums will be going up, and 59% say annual deductibles or copayments are increasing. Fourteen percent said coverage for spouses is being restricted or eliminated, and 11% said their plan is being discontinued. Most Americans with employer-provided insurance looking at next year are really worried about what is going to happen," Robert Blendon told AP. Blendon is a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, who tracks public opinion on health care issues. Predictably, political leanings somewhat affect perceptions of eroding coverage, with larger majorities of Republicans and independents saying their coverage will be affected, but even a majority of these Democrats see Obamacare as a threat to their health care costs and options. Also, the dysfunctional website has become a talisman for Republicans, allowing the GOP to attack Obama's infamous promise : "you can keep the coverage you have if you like it." Disapproval of Obama's handling of health care topped 60% in the poll. Only about one-fourth ofl who tried the website have managed to enroll. Half said they were not able to buy insurance, and the remaining quarter said they weren't sure what happened when they used the website. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Republicans are in an excellent position to come out on top in the 2014 congressional elections. Democrats are already having to defend themselves against GOP TV ad attacks showing them voting for and defending Obamacare. And the NSA appeals are going to put President Obama in the negative position of defending an obviously unconstitutional search of hundreds of millions of Americans who are simply using their personal phones and email. The last thing the Republican Party should do now is succumb to internal pressures and media baiting that will lead to the infighting that the media will then use to portray the GOP as being in disarray. That must not happen. The 2014 elections will save Ametica from Obama's leftist policies and no internal GOP squabbles should be allowed to interfere with this critically important goal for America.