Juan Williams: The GOP at war

Forget presidential politics.

The real action in American politics these days is the in-house feud among Republicans. It features the center-right GOP establishment in one corner and the talk show hosts and Tea Party activists in the other.

The party’s congressional leaders are being derided by the far right as RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) and “squishes” for any willingness to make the kind of deals with Democrats that are essential if Congress is to work.

{mosads}The activists, claiming the mantle of principled conservatives, want Congress to become a stage for confrontation and displays of anger at the entire federal government — and, most of all, at President Obama.

Add to the mix the threat of the GOP’s right wing shutting down the government over federal funding of Planned Parenthood and it’s clear we are witnessing a truly historic political moment — a party engaged in a full civil war with just a year to go before a presidential election.

A late August Quinnipiac poll gave Republicans in Congress only a 12 percent job approval rating.

That dismal rating would not be possible if there was any support among the Republican base for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the party’s elected leaders on Capitol Hill.

Republican contenders for the party’s presidential nomination have noticed. An August Gallup poll of Republicans gave Boehner only a 37 percent approval rating while 42 percent rated him negatively. The same Gallup poll showed McConnell with a disapproval rating of 41 percent among independents and Boehner with a 57 percent disapproval rating among independents. McConnell had a 34 percent favorability rating among Republicans.

The polls reflect hard-right criticism of the leaders for failing to use their majorities to halt ObamaCare or same-sex marriage, and for failing to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

“Had this dynamic unfolded anywhere in the private sector, the corporate board would have fired a CEO like John Boehner long ago,” Daniel Horowitz wrote recently in Conservative Review.

Of course, McConnell does not have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. And neither he nor Boehner had any control over the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage.

But that reality did not stop Carly Fiorina, the former business executive running for president, from recently describing Boehner and McConnell as “captured by the status quo.” She is calling for the Republican majority in Congress to go beyond shutting down the government to block funding for Planned Parenthood with additional measures including banning any abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. On immigration, she argues for the construction of new and increased border security.

“If they can’t produce results then unfortunately leadership should go,” she said.

The GOP’s top congressional leaders reasonably argue they have obstructed the Obama agenda on immigration and tried to defund Planned Parenthood. They have fought the president on increases to government spending and even appointments. Still, they find themselves punished in polls by the voters who elected them, even as Democrats blast them for a failure to compromise and a dearth of legislative solutions.

Even some fellow Republicans in Congress are attacking them.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) has become a Tea Party celebrity by virtue of his effort to remove Boehner as Speaker. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) recently told The Washington Post that the activist base of the GOP is demanding new congressional leadership.

“If they haven’t gotten the message that they need to change the direction of our leadership, it could be a very ugly fall for our party,” Mulvaney said. “The people who are for Donald Trump are against John Boehner and [Boehner] needs to accept that and figure out what to do about it.”

This strategy of harassing top Republicans in Congress has been fundraising gold for the Heritage Foundation and the Senate Conservatives Fund.

Meanwhile, political outsiders with no strong policy proposals — Trump, Fiorina and retired surgeon Ben Carson — are all gaining in polls as the primary race intensifies. None of them has been elected to any political office before.

A similar strategy has elevated a first term senator, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), by rewarding him with national media attention for rallying Tea Party activists in the House to undermine the Speaker on budget deals. 

Cruz also gained the spotlight by calling McConnell a liar over the majority leader’s handling of the votes on the future of the Export-Import Bank. Cruz calls Boehner and the rest of the GOP leadership “squishes” for trying to make deals to keep the government functioning.

The response from the party establishment is best left to Boehner. At a Colorado fundraiser last month he told GOP donors he thinks Cruz is a “jackass.” 

The Speaker has also admitted to being personally hurt by being portrayed as an establishment Republican. “I tell you what pains me the most is when they describe me as ‘the establishment.’ Now, I’m the most anti-establishment Speaker we’ve ever had.”

Boehner and McConnell are not alone.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) got in trouble with Trump, when he said the businessman’s anti-immigrant rhetoric was bringing out the party’s “crazies.”

But what happens when those “crazies” try to run Congress?

Trump and the 16 other candidates for the GOP’s presidential nomination made news when they signed a pledge to support the party’s nominee. That ruled out a third party run.

But it seems implausible that all of them would take a comparable pledge, to support the party’s top elected officials — the Republican Congressional leadership. The sheer improbability of them doing so tells us all we need to know about just how badly the GOP has splintered. 

Juan Williams is an author and political analyst for Fox News Channel.