Joe Miller…Shut Down The Government? Sure, If That’s What It Takes

National Review has a long and interesting piece on the man who will hopefully be the new Senator from Alaska come January.

Should he win the seat, Miller pledges to be a different kind of Republican. “I’m not going to be a co-opted senator, I can tell you that much,” he begins. “That’s the mandate of Alaskans: to get things done and to change the direction of D.C.”

Nonetheless, he says he’s impressed by the party’s leadership and its potential incoming freshman class. “I think there’s an understanding that the mood of the nation has changed in such a way that there is not going to be toleration of business as usual. If that means shutting down the government, so be it. I mean, we’ll do what it takes,” he says. “I think that we will have enough like-minded people coming into D.C. that we’re actually going to be able to accomplish something.”

But is Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate GOP leader, open to the possibility of shutting down the federal government? “There was a comment made at breakfast this morning about shutting down the government, and he reacted in a positive way,” Miller says. “I’m not going to quote him, but I think that he recognizes that that’s on the table.”

...In the final two years of President Obama’s term, Miller says, Republicans have the opportunity not only to make gains, but also to begin, with gusto, to roll back the Obama administration’s policies. “We can do things that don’t require his cooperation,” he says. “That’s what it has to be. Defunding agencies in a targeted fashion, particularly where agencies are aggressively acting against economic interests of the country, be it resource development, business, or otherwise. There are things that need to be cut — low-hanging fruit. With Obamacare, we ultimately want to see it repealed, but we are not going to get the two-thirds vote to do that.”

Obviously this has to be on the table and employed if it comes to that but it’s going to be a risky move, even if Republicans have both houses of Congress. The problem is there are 535 members of Congress and they are going to have their own ideas and agendas. The White House will more or less speak with one voice and it will be easier for them to frame the narrative.

This is why I really like John Boehner’s idea about breaking up authorization bills into much smaller pieces. Doing it that way, Republicans can pick and choose which fights to have and their timing. By shutting down certain parts of the government a piece at a time, you can divide the enemy and build ad-hoc coalitions and make stage the fight on your terms.

Either way, it’s taken generations to get us to this point. We aren’t going to dismantle in one fell swoop, especially not with Obama in the Oval Office. Republicans need to spend the next 2 years building a record much different than what they have to show from 94-06. Piece by piece, fight by fight they can do this leading up to the 2012 elections.

Sending people like Miller, Rubio, Lee, Angle and the rest to DC to reinforce the DeMint/Coburn wing of the caucus is going to be a very good start.

BTW-Miller still needs to raise money to reach his fund-raising goal. Just saying.

And just a side note. I follow the Adirondack Anchorage Daily News on Twitter just to keep up on this race and they give the NY Times a run for their money when it comes to bias. There's been stories about Millers' income, his wife's unemployment benefits and stuff like that. Not a damn word about Murky, her lies or shady real estate deals.

posted by DrewM. at 02:45 PM

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