For Republican Party to survive, it will have to ostracize 'tea party' wing

(PNI) A major consideration that has become increasingly obvious in this total fiasco being waged in Washington, D.C., over the debt ceiling and government closure is that of party principle, platform and agenda.

What has been brought to the political forefront is the disharmony and political differences being displayed by a group of men and women grabbing the shirttails of the GOP and hijacking the entire Republican Party.

There are superficial similarities shared by the Republican Party base and "tea party" members. However, there are deep differences in core values and, most importantly, a national agenda regarding the future of our country.

If the GOP is to survive as a major political party in this country, it is going to have to rise up to defend its principles, platform and national agenda and dismiss these members from its caucus to stand alone in their political beliefs as the tea party.

--Robert Lake, Buckeye

'Tea party' unfairly demonized

The demonization of the "tea party" by the president, the Democrats and the media has achieved its purpose. A great many Americans are buying the caricature that the tea party is a negative force.

I would suggest viewing tapes of some of the larger demonstrations that would show respectful, largely older, multiracial Americans who want only less government, thriving capitalism and the return of freedoms we have had for much of our existence.

Amazing how the virtual world has trumped reality!

--Gary Yohe, Phoenix

Ariz. GOP's delegates a problem

All of you on The Republic editorial staff deserve our appreciation for your handling of the manufactured crisis in Washington. But you continue to ignore one local fact: The entire Republican wing of Arizona's congressional delegation has been part of this insanity.

When news reports described the 40 to 50 Republican extremists who have created the crisis, they are talking about our Republican members of Congress.

More complete local reporting and comment need to include that fact, don't you think?

--Bob Grossfeld, Mesa

Calling them leaders flat wrong

Regarding "Leaders closing in on a deal"(Republic, Tuesday):

Really?

You're calling those idiots in Washington, D.C., "leaders"?

--Corinne Crebassa, Phoenix

Medicare act, health law differ

Regarding "'Obamacare' hatred hypocritical" (Opinions, Tuesday):

The letter writer compares the Medicare Prescription Drug Act with Obamacare. While I agree "any" unfunded bill shouldn't pass Congress, I'd like to point out some major differences.

First, the prescription Medicare bill was passed with bipartisan support.

Second, it was not 2,000 pages that nobody read.

Third, you are not forced to use it.

Fourth, you're not penalized for not using it.

Fifth, even though it is expensive, it does not appear to be anywhere near the long-term cost of Obamacare.

--Mike Fisher, Peoria

Lake Powell is a beautiful place

Regarding The Republic's series this week on Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam:

I'm always amazed with the logic of people who want to drain Lake Powell. Don't they consider the millions of people who have and will enjoy one of the most beautiful places on Earth?

Up until Glen Canyon Dam was built, only a handful of people had seen Rainbow Bridge and other marvelous scenery of Glen Canyon.

My family and I have been enjoying Lake Powell for the past 40 years. We are grateful to the people who made Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell possible.

--Bob Wright, Mesa

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Shutdown straining ties between businesses, GOP

The ongoing federal government shutdown is straining the oft cozy relationship between the business community and the Republican Party.

And the growing possibility that the country could soon default on its debt is only adding to the tension.

Arizona's GOP congressmen -- U.S. Reps. Matt Salmon, David Schweikert, Trent Franks and Paul Gosar -- tout their pro-business credentials. But they are part of a conservative group of Republicans in the House of Representatives that is continuing to play hardball on a budget deal, much to the business community's chagrin.

Republicans see the federal government's current crisis as one of their few opportunities to win concessions on issues key to their base from Democrats who control the U.S. Senate and the White House. They include cutting government spending, reforming taxes or entitlements and, until recently, as they've moved to new tactics, gutting the health-care law.

Business leaders around the country and in Arizona say that they support those goals but that they fear the economic consequences of the stalemate, now in its 12th day.

"The country is still pulling out of its toughest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Why take any chances that federal government actions could reverse some of the positive economic progress we've made over the last three years?" said Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Instead, Hamer thinks Republicans should agree to a "clean" continuing resolution that would end the shutdown and put federal employees back to work with no strings attached. And President Barack Obama, he said, should commit himself to cutting the nation's debt in exchange for a debt-ceiling increase.

The stalemate in Washington has continued, though talks between the two parties took on new urgency Friday with the possibility of a federal default just five days away. House Republicans were offering to pass short-term legislation that would avert the default and reopen the government as part of a framework that would include cuts in benefit programs.

But White House spokesman Jay Carney said late Friday that the president would not accept a stopgap deal that would put the nation back on the brink in six weeks.

Arizona impact

In the two weeks that the federal government has ceased doing business, some industries, including Arizona's vital tourism economy, are being hit hard.

National-parks advocates estimate close to $1 billion in visitor spending nationwide has been lost in the 12 days since parks closed. Arizona has lost 132,000 visitors and $13 million in tourism dollars at Grand Canyon National Park. Nearly 7,000 jobs are affected, from furloughed park staffers to tour guides with no visitors to show around, according to a report from the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.

The defense industry, which is also critical to Arizona's economic health, has suffered, with government contracts put on hold. Lockheed Martin, for instance, has furloughed hundreds of workers.

"We are bearing a disproportionate brunt of the effects of the partial shutdown," Hamer said.

As a result, many of the same business groups to which Arizona Republicans have close ties are publicly pressuring the House GOP to put an end to the political brinkmanship. For example:

The head of the American Bankers Association said defaulting on the country's $17 trillion debt could cost hundreds of billions and ordinary Americans would suffer. "Using the debt ceiling as leverage in the deficit debate is unwise and dangerous," the association president said. The bankers association is a top donor to Schweikert.

The National Federation of Independent Business sent a letter to lawmakers, calling on them to avoid default. Gosar touted the federation's campaign endorsement last year.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce called reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling "must-pass legislation." During Salmon's bid to return to Congress in 2012, he pointed to awards from the chamber as proof he was pro-business.

Honeywell's chief executive was more blunt than most business leaders, who continue to call on both sides to compromise. "It's clearly this faction within the Republican Party that's causing the issue right now," CEO David Cote told theNew York Times. Honeywell is Franks' top donor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Despite the business groups' views, Schweikert and Gosar believe fears of a default-related catastrophe are overblown. Franks did not respond to several requests for an interview, but he also has said Democrats are exaggerating debt-limit consequences.

Salmon believes Republicans must use the debt ceiling as leverage because he doesn't trust Democrats to compromise on things like reforming Social Security and Medicare.

Election impacts?

Recent polls indicate Republicans' popularity during the shutdown has tanked, causing political experts to speculate about a backlash against conservative members in the next election. A survey by Gallup indicated the GOP's favorability is at its lowest point since 1992, and an NBC News/WallStreet Journal poll said "tea party" favorability is at an all-time low of 21 percent.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the results "devastating."

In some parts of the country, tea-party Republicans are now facing more moderate campaign challengers propped up by the local business establishment.

But so far, Arizona's Republican House members appear safe in next year's midterm elections. Each represents a solidly GOP district and, despite the heartburn they're giving business leaders, none faces a campaign opponent.

Gosar said feedback from his constituents in rural northern Arizona is increasingly supportive of Republicans holding the line.

"They are ticked off at this president and this administration and the U.S. Senate," the Prescott Republican said. "At first, they were about 60-40 telling us to hang tough. Now, it's up to about 90-10."

Salmon said he's listening to his constituents, who on two telephone town halls backed him overwhelmingly.

"We are supposed to represent the feelings and thoughts of our constituents," he said.

Who speaks for business?

Arizona Republicans are proud their views aren't in line with "big business" groups like the U.S. Chamber.

Schweikert said the chamber benefits from federal spending programs that conservatives oppose, like the bank bailouts during the recession, which conservatives believe helped big businesses at the expense of the overall economy.

"This is the post-stimulus and post-bailout world," Schweikert said.

Salmon said he appreciates the chamber's input on raising the debt ceiling but thinks business groups should focus on the long-term goal that conservatives are pushing for: a long-term cut in government spending to reduce the country's overall debt.

"We're hearing from Big Business America saying, 'Do this now.' I'd like to hear them put the same pressure on (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid and the Democrats," he said.

Gosar said he would not support any bill that raises the debt ceiling without also delaying the health-care law for a year or doing something else to significantly reduce government spending and regulation.

He said conservatives are trying to help the economy.

"Anytime you're holding and restraining government, as we're trying to do, you're enabling investment in the private sector," he said.

Eric Herzik, chairman of the political-science department at the University of Nevada-Reno, said the debate is part of a split in the Republican Party.

"In the past, the Republicans were the party of business, the Chamber of Commerce, the banks, even Main Street businesses," Herzik said.

"(But) during the Bush administration, you got this division between Big Business/Wall Street and the little guy," he said, as stimulus programs that continued under the Obama administration fueled frustration among tea-party Republicans.

"They look at what happened and say, 'The little guy didn't get treated as well as the big guy,'" Herzig said.

He said groups like the Chamber of Commerce are caught in the middle, because they represent businesses of all sizes. "The chamber used to be kind of the touchstone for Republicans. Now, the tea-party Republicans are saying, 'No, you don't speak for business. We do,'" Herzig said. "And the chamber is saying, 'Who are you?'"

Patrick Kenney, a political-science professor and director of the Institute for Social Science Research at Arizona State University, said most hard-line Republicans are in such safe districts that they are unlikely to lose their seats over the shutdown or debt-ceiling crisis.

In Arizona, for instance, he noted that Gosar is in a more Republican district than he was in in 2011, when he voted to raise the debt ceiling. He took heat for it last election and has since hardened his stance.

But Kenney said it may be risky for Republicans to dismiss the importance of the debt ceiling.

"Virtually all economists agree that this would injure our reputation around the world with the people who buy our bonds," he said. "Even if you can get by for a little while with some manipulation of the money, it's obviously not sustainable."

He said McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who both opposed the Affordable Care Act, are taking more of a pragmatic approach than their ideological GOP colleagues in the House.

"I don't think they see the House Republicans' strategy as a winning strategy," Kenney said.

Flake has said it makes sense to use the debt-ceiling debate to force spending cuts, as Republicans did two years ago with the Budget Control Act.

But doubting the consequences of a default, as Schweikert and Gosar have, makes him "cringe."

McCain blamed his own party for the impasse in an interview with Fox News Friday, calling the motivation behind the shutdown a "fool's errand."

"The whole premise of shutting down the government was the repeal of 'Obamacare,'" McCain said. "That gave the opportunity for this to be terribly, awfully mismanaged and mishandled by the White House."

On the debt limit, McCain said Republicans could negotiate with the president on entitlements and tax reform.

"There are things that are achievable. Defunding Obamacare is not one of them," he said.

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Medieval cadre of GOP in for hard political lesson

Fans of representative democracy know that there are ways to advocate one's beliefs short of threatening and delivering harm to the larger society.

It used to be that one could blame the parade of manufactured crises not on the whole Republican Party but on its unruly "tea party" faction. That's becoming less and less so as what remains of the pragmatic leadership caves in to the extremists' demands.

The GOP's perspective on governing seems to have moved from enlightenment to medieval. It's become the party of pain.

Before I go on, let me salute some individual Republicans for standing up to the insanity within their party: Rep. Peter King of New York, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania. You represent the Republican Party of my father.

For all their patriotic posturing, the tea-party bomb throwers don't like America very much. Worse, they don't understand how democratic governments or economies work. Some of their political leaders do know but don't care, using their electorate's confusion to enrich themselves off their bankroller billionaires.

There's nothing to do about these voters. They won't squawk until their own checks -- for Medicare, Social Security, farm subsidies, roadwork -- stop arriving. Tea-party congressional districts tend to be poor, old, rural and on the receiving end. If anyone is a burden to productive America, they are.

And so, President Barack Obama had to cancel a trip to Asia to baby-sit Republican tantrums in Washington. The financial and psychological damage of this shutdown keeps rising.

The Republican Party's staunchest allies -- the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers -- are now tearing out their hair, demanding a stop to all this ignoramus talk about a debt default being no big deal.

"Our nation has never defaulted in the past, and failing to raise the debt limit in a timely fashion will seriously disrupt our fragile economy and have a ripple effect through the world," wrote the president of NAM, nobody's idea of a liberal.

You have the formerly pragmatic Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina speculating that a default on government debt is a manageable situation. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has his nutty solution: spending piecemeal. If there's not enough tax money coming in during a particular month, he says, we can decide what it gets spent on.

Great, let's have fistfights every month over whether North Cascades National Park can answer its e-mail or not.

America's savers and investors, meanwhile, are given a choice of a kneecapping or punch in the stomach.

Looking forward to 2014, Republicans may have already lost their swing vote. And even districts packed with tea-party discontents may not be so safe as they assume.

Once it sinks in that their checks come from Washington and not from heaven, the hotheads will turn on a dime. And please stop calling them "conservatives."

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Shutdown was sharp lesson for Congress

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON The one good thing to come out of the 16-day government shutdown is that members of Congress may be reluctant to do it again anytime soon, lawmakers and political analysts say.

Polls reflect anger; GOP takes the biggest hit

Polls conducted during the shutdown showed Americans were angry at lawmakers in both parties over the government shutdown, although Republicans received the biggest share of the blame.

A poll released Oct. 15 by the Pew Research Center showed a 43 percent approval rating for President Barack Obama, a 31 percent approval rating for Democratic congressional leaders and a 20 percent approval rating for Republican leaders. Asked whom they blamed for the shutdown, 46 percent said Republicans and 37 percent said the Obama administration.

The poll had a margin of error of about plus or minus 3percentage points.

The political brinksmanship cost the economy $24 billion, prompted criticism from world leaders and put some government offices and 800,000 federal employees out of work. Public support for the Republican Party dipped to historic lows, even as anger toward incumbents of both parties spiked.

Americans will soon see if Congress is taking a new path. The deal approved Wednesday to reopen the government funds federal agencies only through Jan. 15 and raises the nation's borrowing limit through Feb. 7. House and Senate negotiators will have to reach a new budget deal over the next few months to avert another shutdown and debt-ceiling crisis.

"The only thing this shutdown did was put our dysfunction on display," said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who was part of a bipartisan group that helped craft the deal to reopen the government. "People will think twice before they go down that road again."

The House Republicans and GOP senators who tried to use the government shutdown to derail the Affordable Care Act ended up with nothing to show for their efforts, said Jack Pitney, a political-science professor at Claremont McKenna College in California.

In the end, 87 House Republicans out of 232 voted against the deal, refusing to give in.

Their failure makes it less likely more-mainstream Republicans will support those tactics again, Pitney said. They are now more likely to stand up to their "tea party" colleagues and oppose a strategy that forces a shutdown, he said.

"I think a lot of members have gotten the message that this strategy doesn't work," Pitney said. "Now whether the most hard-core members have absorbed that knowledge remains to be seen. But I think most Republicans realize that the president is not going to fold, and that probably reduces the chances of a shutdown happening again. We'll see."

The shutdown was only the most recent clash over federal spending that has characterized Congress in recent years. Both chambers of Congress have not agreed on a budget resolution since 2009. While not binding, such resolutions provide a blueprint for the House and Senate appropriations committees to decide how to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

The failure of Congress to pass a budget or individual spending bills for federal agencies has forced lawmakers to pass "continuing resolutions" to keep the government funded. The 16-day shutdown occurred when Congress failed to pass the latest continuing resolution.

The Arizona Republicans in the House who fought to delay or defund the president's signature health-care law acknowledged the episode didn't end well for them.

"At the end of the day, I don't think we got a lot," said Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., who voted against the deal that reopened the government.

Still, Schweikert said he is optimistic the crisis sparked a renewed commitment by both sides in Congress to come together and pass a budget.

"I don't think that (another shutdown) happens," Schweikert said. "I think there is a new emphasis to get the budget and appropriations committees fired up to get us through the budget process."

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said he was frustrated many Republicans caved to Democrats by voting for the bipartisan deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.

"All we've done is taught a spoiled child they're going to get their way," he said.

Despite the outcome, it was worth the effort, Gosar said. He vowed that he and other Republicans will continue to try to block the 3-year-old health-care law for the remainder of Obama's presidency.

"I don't know how Republicans lost at all," he said. "We had a conversation with the American people on a program that is destined to fail."

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said Republicans came away with the small victory of keeping the automatic, across-the-board "sequestration" budget cuts in place for fiscal 2014 -- at least until Jan. 15, when the current deal expires.

But the threat that the Affordable Care Act poses to "the fiscal survival of the country" was too great to ignore, Franks said.

"We control one-half of one-third of the American government," he said,referring to the GOP-controlled House. "Until the people of this country find both the wisdom and the will to change that equation, people like me are going to struggle to arrest America's march toward socialized medicine."

While the tea-party faction of the Republican Party defends its tactics, most members of Congress argue the shutdown was too painful to repeat, said Patrick Kenney, a political-science professor and director of the Institute for Social Science Research at Arizona State University.

"There was just too much cost in terms of real people's lives," Kenney said. "There was cost to citizens, to businesses and to the political parties. Both parties lost standing in the eyes of the public, but Republicans lost more. I think they will work really hard to avoid another shutdown if they can."

Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., said he hopes most lawmakers learned that there are no winners in a shutdown. "Everybody lost," Pastor said.

Congress must find a way to get back to the regular process of holding budget-committee meetings and negotiations to decide how much government will spend and what its priorities will be, Kenney said. "There is no magic bullet here," he said. "There's no good alternative to old-fashioned committee work and negotiating between the two parties. Threatening another shutdown is not going to accomplish what months of hard work through the committee process can accomplish."

Negotiators from the House and Senate budget committees have already begun meeting as part of the deal that Congress reached to reopen the government. They have a deadline of mid-December to complete proposals for compromises on a budget plan and report back.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., said there is a lot riding on those budget negotiations.

"A key factor will be how the negotiations in the conference committee play out," said spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson. "We'll know that by Dec. 15 and will have a better sense of whether compromise is happening. This cycle of flailing from crisis to crisis must be stopped."

Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., said Congress "cannot allow another round of political brinksmanship."

"We must come together to adopt a bipartisan budget that ends sequestration (automatic budget cuts), creates jobs and protects Social Security and Medicare," he said. "Southern Arizonans have already suffered too much from the economic uncertainty caused by the shutdown, and I am committed to working with my colleagues to find common-sense and long-term solutions to get our fiscal house in order."

But Gosar is pessimistic.

"We're going to be doing this all over again," he predicted. "This agreement by the Senate brings us to another crisis point. We're going to be doing this all next year and through the rest of this president's presidency. This is going to be a rocky road for the American people and for businesses."

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Bipartisanship: Some embrace the B-word

(PNI) Rep. Ron Barber called him the "young man who shot us." He didn't have to say: Jared Loughner. We all knew.

"Had people really understood what they were seeing," Barber said of the young man's descent, "he might well have gotten into treatment and not committed that act."

Barber didn't have to define the act, either. We all knew he was talking about Jan. 8, 2011, when an untreated mentally-ill young man killed six people and wounded 13, including Barber and then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

As the Democratic congressman from District 2, Barber spoke at a recent Saturday-morning breakfast hosted by the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, a regional behavioral-health authority based in Tucson.

I met Barber and his communications director, Mark Kimble, crossing the parking lot on the way in. We chatted briefly -- the usual small talk above asphalt that was already radiating too much heat.

I thought about how parking lots and public places have a very different significance for Barber. It takes a great deal of personal courage to remain a political figure after being shot at a political event.

Barber was at the breakfast to celebrate Arizona's approval of Medicaid restoration and expansion, which will bring in billions in federal funding to provide health care and mental-health services to more than 350,000 people.

It took another kind of courage for state lawmakers to make that happen: political courage.

Rep. Ethan Orr is one of the Republicans who voted with the Democrats for Medicaid expansion.

That got him named on a T-shirt -- available on eBay -- that identifies Republican Gov. Jan Brewer as a "traitor" and features a bloody knife splitting the sentiment "another conservative stabbed in the back by Ethan Orr." Or Steve Pierce. Or John McComish. Etc.

Orr told the gathering that his vote was a matter of putting the community "above personal and partisan interests." This third-generation Arizonan says that's the history of Arizona politics.

The partisan stuff -- the bloody knives and the threats of primary challenges from the right -- do not reflect the spirit of cooperation that built this state, Orr says.

"That's the anomaly," he said. "Arizona is about bipartisanship."

At this point, you may think you've slipped down a rabbit hole.

Reality check: Medicaid expansion and the budget were bipartisan only because the governor was forced to rely on Democratic votes to get her legacy program passed.

It was a Kumbaya nanosecond. It ended on a shrill chorus of "Yes, you did! No, I didn't!" Democratic Sen. Steve Gallardo accused Brewer betraying the Democrats' trust by signing an election bill they hated. She said she'd never promised not to.

The snap back to partisan conflict felt normal. Predictable. Pathetic.

But wait.

Orr and Rep. Victoria Steele, his Democratic seatmate in District 9, were still committed members of a mutual-admiration society during the breakfast appearance with Barber.

This bipartisan pair orchestrated the other legislative accomplishment that was being celebrated that morning: added funding for Mental Health First Aid.

The program involves training people to recognize signs of mental illness. Sort of like emergency CPR training, but for disorders of the mind. People learn how to get help for friends, students or children who are at risk of hurting themselves or others.

Barber is pushing this in Congress.

In Arizona, Orr and Steele pushed for $250,000 to expand the program, which has trained thousands of people statewide since 2011. Their bill easily passed the House and got stalled in the Senate. It was resurrected in the final hours of the session.

"The secret to this was bipartisanship," Steele said.

Holy mackerel. There's that B-word again. Steele also says the current image of the GOP in Arizona isn't a reflection of the Republican Party, it's just "a loud minority."

"I think most Republicans are like Ethan," she said. Nice. Reasonable. Able to disagree on some things and work together on others.

There's that seemingly irrational faith in the system again.

Is it possible? Could the extremists be assigned to the Flat Earth Committee while moderate people from both parties run things?

"I firmly believe that if you reach across the aisle, you will find willing partners," said Barber.

Some will suggest he should have his head examined.

But just imagine if that way of thinking catches on.

Reach Valdez at linda.valdez @arizona republic.com.

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Brewer clueless on insult to GOP

(PNI) From the political notebook:

Gov. Jan Brewer recently sent out another appeal to Republican Party activists asking them to eschew primary fights over her Medicaid expansion. The letter merely reinforced that the governor still does not understand the magnitude of what she has done.

She did not just force through her Medicaid expansion over the opposition of most legislative Republicans and activists. She shut out three-quarters of Republican lawmakers from any meaningful input into the state budget, the most fundamental of all governing documents. She emasculated the Republican legislative majority in a way that Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano never did.

Yet this shouldn't be a topic of debate and discussion in Republican primaries? What the hell should be discussed in the 2014 Republican primaries? What kind of NBA draft candidates think the Suns had?

Primaries are where parties sort out internal squabbles about policy, personnel and procedures. Brewer says that the soundness of her policy (Medicaid expansion) and the propriety of her action (orchestrating a temporary coup of both legislative bodies) shouldn't be debated in Republican primaries because that might help Democrats win additional legislative seats in the general election.

In the first place, that's only true in a small number of districts. In several districts in which Brewer co-conspirators face a potential primary challenge, Republicans could stage a bare-knuckle cage fight and still win the general election.

But much more troublesome is the suggestion that primary voters shouldn't be given choices and robust debate.

The problem isn't with the fight. The problem is the late date of Arizona's primary election, which makes it difficult for either political party to recover from a robust primary sufficiently to fairly contest the general election.

Having a primary in Arizona during the dog days of August is nuts. A June primary would better serve the electorate by permitting sharply contested primaries and fully competitive general elections.

Arizona Sen. John McCain has twice exercised uncharacteristic diplomacy to avert the so-called nuclear option in the Senate over filibusters. In 2005, he neutralized an effort by Republicans, then in the majority, by getting a critical number of Democrats to effectively commit not to support a filibuster of the judicial nominees of then President George W. Bush.

Last week, he neutralized a similar effort by Senate Democrats by getting Republicans to stop blocking most of President Barack Obama's executive-branch nominees.

This sounds unkind, but next time, I hope McCain just lets the place go kaboom.

The filibuster is an extra-constitutional measure that thwarts, rather than furthers, the checks and balances the Founders devised. The Constitution states the circumstances in which an extraordinary majority of the Senate is required: approving treaties, amending the Constitution, impeachment. By implication, everything else was intended to be done by a simple majority.

The filibuster, and even worse the practice of a single senator putting a hold on a nominee, gives dissident senators more power than the Founders intended. The "advice and consent" power rests with the body, not individual senators.

Phoenix leaders told voters that, if they approved a bond to expand and improve the convention center, private investors would build a new downtown hotel to support it. That turned out not to be the case, and Phoenix taxpayers had to build the hotel, as well.

When Phoenix leaders conned legislators into picking up half of the cost of the expansion, they promised that it wouldn't actually cost the state anything. Extra revenue generated by the expansion would produce significantly more than the state's share. If not, Phoenix would make up the difference from its state-shared revenue.

Now that the time has come for an accounting, Phoenix wants to renege or renegotiate. The excuse is that it's been a hard economy and the Legislature contributed to the convention center's underperformance by passing SB 1070.

So, in addition to paying for half of the cost, the state has to allowthe convention business to control the state's immigration-enforcement policies?

The state had no business making such a special deal with a single city in the first place. It certainly shouldn't agree to let Phoenix off the hook for its false promises.

Reach Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com.

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Medicaid wounds are still raw in GOP

If the latest fracas between Gov. Jan Brewer and Republican Party operatives is any indication, it's going to be a long, ugly 13 months until the 2014 primary election.

Brewer recently reached out to the right wing of her party in hopes of healing wounds left by the bipartisan passage of Medicaid expansion, saying it's time to put differences aside and unite for the good of the party.

Conservative Republicans responded by sharpening their invective and moving forward with a series of "no confidence" votes against the governor and the 14 GOP lawmakers who backed the governor's expansion plan last month.

Supporters of the new law to broaden health-care coverage for the poor under the federal Affordable Care Act say the legislative precinct committee members represent a small fringe of the GOP and their symbolic votes don't matter.

But at the same time, they warn that, in some districts, working to knock off GOP moderates in the primary could give the seats to Democrats in the general election.

Brewer was concerned enough to send a letter Friday to thousands of precinct committee members across the state who make up the grass-roots political machinery of the GOP, making her case for Medicaid expansion and asking for their support.

"To continue efforts to potentially hurt and intimidate those who stood with me only puts Republicans' chances for electoral success next year back into harm's way," the governor wrote.

"We are allies. It is time to move on, work together for a united front in 2014 and focus on the key issues that face our state, including the economy, quality education and public safety."

Brewer sent a similar missive to GOP officials in March, when they were passing, during legislative-district meetings, harshly worded resolutions that opposed expansion and threatened the political careers of Republican lawmakers who supported it.

At that time, the governor argued that the GOP would be more at risk if it turned down the federal funds that will pay for most of the expansion and kicked their constituents off Medicaid.

But the conservative party loyalists say Brewer and the Republicans who teamed with Democrats to pass expansion have abandoned conservative GOP principles and made matters worse by pushing the bill through in a three-day special session that the governor called without consulting GOP leadership.

"They're elitists who think that what they've done can be forgiven. They're mistaken," Maricopa County GOP Chairman A.J. LaFaro said. "We are not going to be able to defeat all of them, but we will definitely defeat some of them. They are Arizona's 15 most wanted."

So far, GOP executive committees in five legislative districts have approved no-confidence resolutions or resolutions to censure the renegade Republicans and Brewer for supporting Medicaid expansion.

Most also include Rep. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, who voted for expansion once but against it in the end. Another vote is scheduled in Mesa's Legislative District 16 on Thursday.

The votes have no legal impact, but GOP officials hope they will help turn voters against the incumbent lawmakers.

Rep. Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek, was out of town late last month when her Legislative District 15 GOP committee gave her a no-confidence vote.

Carter, who shepherded the expansion bill through the House, said she's proud of her vote but doesn't want to dwell on divisions within the party.

"I don't make decisions based on my political future," she said. "I make decisions based on what's best for my state. If you look back in history, when the Republican Party has done well, they have always provided a big tent."

Veteran Arizona pollster Bruce Merrill said the GOP split over Medicaid is another example of the conservative takeover of the state's GOP machinery.

"It just shows the extent to which the Republican Party is really fractured," said Merrill, a senior research fellow at Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. "The right wing has really taken over the party."

Merrill said the precinct committee members should not be underestimated in their ability to get conservative candidates elected in primaries, when most Arizona races are decided.

They may not represent mainstream Republicans, he said, but they know how to play politics.

"They're a smart, hardworking group of people who understand how the system works," Merrill said. "I reluctantly give them credit. … At the precinct level, they help you win."

Rep. Carl Seel, R-Phoenix, said he's not concerned about whether bouncing moderate Republicans could give Democrats the advantage in some districts.

As he sees it, the moderates, by voting with Democrats to pass Medicaid expansion, already have given Democrats control of the House, where the GOP holds a 34-26 advantage.

"One could make the argument that those nine turncoat Republicans in the state House are now Democrats," Seel said.

"It's not safe for any of them."

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