Finally — the Republican Party establishment is fighting back against tea bagger insurgents. Of course, the push back is not coming from the GOP establishment in Washington, where they cower in their boots at the thought of a tea party opponent in the primaries, but from Ohio, where they want to protect the interests of homeboy Speaker John Boehner:
– Anonymous Ohio Republican operative
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s open defiance of Speaker John Boehner’s efforts to solve the debt-ceiling crisis could cost the Urbana Republican his safe seat in next year’s election.
Two Republican sources deeply involved in configuring new Ohio congressional districts confirmed to The Dispatch today that Jordan’s disloyalty to Boehner has put him in jeopardy of being zeroed out of a district.
“Jim Jordan’s boneheadedness has kind of informed everybody’s thinking,” said one of the sources, both of whom spoke only on condition of anonymity. “The easiest option for everybody has presented itself.”
Jordan’s rural 11-county district, which has a 60 percent Republican voter index, “is easy to cannibalize because it stretches so far,” said the other source.
Hostilities between Boehner and Jordan, whose districts abut each other, broke out into the open this week as the speaker struggled to line up votes from tea party conservatives in the House for his plan to raise the debt ceiling while cutting as much as $3 trillion over the next decade.
Jordan, a tea party favorite who chairs the 170-plus member Republican Study Committee, has stymied Boehner’s efforts to raise the debt ceiling. On Wednesday, the rift exploded when it was discovered a key aide to the committee sent emails to conservative groups urging them to push undecided Republicans to vote against Boehner’s plan.
The undermining of Boehner was the last straw for Statehouse Republicans controlling the redistricting process in Ohio, saying Jordan’s refusal to be a team player should cost him his job.
As a result of population loss in the 2010 Census, Ohio must give up two of its 18 congressional districts. The Republican-controlled Legislature is more than likely to zero out Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s district in Cleveland, but finding a Republican district to excise has been more difficult — until now.
One of the Republican sources for this story in the Columbus Dispatch told a reporter, “The downside of being in an uber-safe district is you often don’t develop the strategic skills you need to survive in the arena and in this case that is going to be painfully evident to Jim Jordan.”
Jordan is head of the ironically named Republican Study Committee, the most conservative faction in the House before the advent of the Tea Party in 2009. He got in trouble this week when an RSC staffer was caught rallying opposition to Speaker Boehner’s bill:
Jordan (Ohio), the head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, was called to the carpet after an RSC staffer was caught emailing outside conservative groups and asking them to lobby Republican House members to vote against the bill. After Jordan apologized to Boehner (Ohio) and his fellow Republicans for the staffer’s actions, at least one House member yelled “fire him,” according to sources in the room.
According to The Hill newspaper, Boehner has been “intimately involved” in the redistricting of Ohio.