A Republican Party At Odds With Itself

The fight for the soul of the GOP.  After Speaker Boehner’s tongue-lashing of the Tea Party, a key Main Streeter and a Tea Party stalwart join us to hash out the confrontation on the Right.

House Speaker John Boehner’s “Are you kidding me?” outburst at Tea Party hardliners last week is still echoing across the landscape of the Republican Party.  Boehner’s vivid, audible frustration with hardliners in the GOP sounded as if it had been brewing and stewing for months, years.  Angry and fed up and pushed too far.  Now it’s out there.  Mainstream Republicans saying enough.  Tea Party stalwarts saying no, it’s not.  We’ve got a lot more to do.  People calling it a civil war.  How deep does it go?  How real is the divide?  This hour On Point:  the showdown inside the GOP.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Michael Needham, CEO of Heritage Action For America. (@MikeNeedham)

Steve LaTourette, President of McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies, a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm. President and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Former U.S. Congressman from Ohio's 19th and 14th districts. (@LaTourette)

USA Today: Palin to GOP budget supporters: 'We'll be watching' — "Sarah Palin is adding her voice to the chorus of Tea Party conservatives upset with the compromise budget deal. The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, who enjoys a following among the small government, anti-tax supporters, blasted the two-year deal worked out by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray. Palin argued in an op-ed column for Breitbart.com that the budget agreement would lead to higher taxes and more spending."

Washington Times:  Budget Deal: The GOP is playing the long game -- "A big, messy, budget battle right now would do nothing to help the GOP politically. While the Tea Party will undoubtedly call bad form, and while acceptance of this budget by no means constitutes the act of practicing fiscal conservatism in Congressional politics, it does give the Democrats one less thing they can use to distract from the fact that President Obama’s single greatest legislative achievement has been marred by 'faulty' websites, lies, fraud, and downright resentment among the American people."

Politico: Boehner, Ryan lobby Senate GOP on budget plan — "Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Paul Ryan convinced 167 House Republicans to back the bipartisan budget deal last week and effectively put an end to this year’s fiscal wars. Now, they’re trying to get at least five Senate Republicans to do the same. In an attempt to head off growing Senate GOP opposition to the plan, Boehner and Ryan have personally urged a handful of Senate Republicans to help advance the plan, according to several people familiar with the matter. Boehner has brought the issue up in conversations with some of his closest Senate GOP friends, sources say, while Ryan has actively made calls to wayward Senate Republicans."