NY Times, Business Groups See Loss of Sway Over House G.O.P.:
As the government shutdown grinds toward a potential debt default, some of the country’s most influential business executives have come to a conclusion all but unthinkable a few years ago: Their voices are carrying little weight with the House majority that their millions of dollars in campaign contributions helped build and sustain.
Their frustration has grown so intense in recent days that several trade association officials warned in interviews on Wednesday that they were considering helping wage primary campaigns against Republican lawmakers who had worked to engineer the political standoff in Washington…
“We are looking at ways to counter the rise of an ideological brand of conservatism that, for lack of a better word, is more anti-establishment than it has been in the past,” said David French, the top lobbyist at the National Retail Federation. “We have come to the conclusion that sitting on the sidelines is not good enough.”
I believe the relevant cliche is “A day late and a dollar short.” The time to do that was in 2010. You honestly didn’t see that “more anti-establishment than it has been in the past” thing back then? Maybe not. A lot of you were surprised Romney lost. Be that as it may, you’ve got yourself a big uphill battle now.
Joe Echevarria, the chief executive of Deloitte, the accounting and consulting firm, said, “I’m a Republican by definition and by registration, but the party seems to have split into two factions.”
While both parties have extreme elements, he suggested, only in the G.O.P. did the extreme element exercise real power. “The extreme right has 90 seats in the House,” Mr. Echevarria said. “Occupy Wall Street has no seats.”
Nice to know I’m not the only one who noticed.
In the two previous battles over the debt limit, many chief executives were reluctant to take sides, banding together in groups like Fix the Debt, which spent millions of dollars on a campaign urging Democrats and Republicans to work toward a “grand bargain” on the budget. But with shutdown a reality, and the clock ticking toward default, some of those same executives now place the blame squarely on conservative Republicans in the House.
“It’s clearly this faction within the Republican Party that’s causing the issue right now,” said David M. Cote, the chief executive of Honeywell and a steering board member of Fix the Debt.
Remind me, didn’t we send arms to bin Laden when he was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan? And assist Hussein when he was fighting the Iranians? Yet again “The enemy of my enemy must be my friend.” logic leads to trouble.
The rift, these industry executives acknowledge, reflects longstanding tensions that sometimes emerge between the agendas of corporate executives and those embraced by the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
“We ask them to carry our water all the time,” said one corporate sector lobbyist, who demanded anonymity in order to speak frankly about the relationship with Republicans. “But we don’t necessarily support them 100 percent of the time. And what has happened is the rise of an ideological wing that is now willing to stand up to business interests.”
I doubt Mao’s followers were as ideologically committed as those boys are.
To break through to lawmakers, some national trade groups are deploying local business owners, who they believe may have more clout with conservatives than big-name chief executive officers. The National Retail Federation has already begun such efforts in states like Oklahoma and Kentucky, where the Republican Party dominates.
A spokeswoman for the National Association of Manufacturers, Erin Streeter, said the group had decided to sponsor a fund-raising event for Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, who is among the 20 House Republicans who have said they will support a budget bill — or at least a temporary measure to reopen the government — without removing funds from the health care program. Mr. Simpson is facing a primary challenge from a more conservative, Tea Party-backed Republican.
An Idaho Republican being primaried from the right? I wouldn’t have thought it possible but, low and behold, so it is.
“We need to be more aggressive,” Ms. Streeter said…
“The reason the business community is overwhelmingly pro-Republican is because of the policy positions generally held by the Democratic Party,” said Dirk Van Dongen, president of the National Association of Wholesalers-Distributors. “But there’s a lot of talk around town about the need for Republicans to get into primaries and protect people who are being attacked because they are only 96 percent pure.”
“I, for one, think that would be a healthy exercise,” he added.
Good luck with that. Seriously, if you need help putting down your insurgents please let me know what I can do to assist. I’m willing to put our disputes on the back burner until after they’ve been dealt.