"What better person to be a yes-man for [the Senate establishment] than someone who has been a yes-man for House leadership? Their latest recruit is Congressman Bill Cassidy."
U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge
U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy is the presumptive GOP opponent against U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu in what will likely be a 2014 runoff for her seat. The Baton Rouge congressman made it official this spring, and he and the state's GOP machine have wasted few opportunities in hanging Obamacare around Landrieu's neck in the run-up to next year's election season, eliciting a scoff from Red State's Daniel Horowitz. (Red State, for those of you unfamiliar, is conservative TV bloviator Erick Erickson's red-meat-for-right-wingers website.)
Horowitz rolls out the political meme du jour emanating from the Beltway: the GOP "establishment" (read: Republican In Name Only) versus a noble base imbued with conservative conviction:
What better person to be a yes-man for [Senate minority leader Mitch] McConnell than someone who has been a yes-man for House leadership? Their latest recruit is Congressman Bill Cassidy who is being supported by all of the establishment in his bid for Senate.
... Like most of the establishment candidates who feel insecure in their opposition to Obamacare, Cassidy took his turn posing behind the Mitch McConnell RINO-protection tower last month.
The source of Cassidy's Obamacare insecurity, according to Horowitz? Cassidy's unwillingness to help defund the Affordable Care Act through appropriations bills, which, after 37 attempts by the Republican-controlled House at outright repeal of the health care law, is the only glimmer of hope for the principled opposition.
But Cassidy's mortal sin - venial in our view, but we quibble - was his participation in a ribbon cutting ceremony at a new school-based health clinic in his district. A clinic funded by, you guessed it, a $500,000 Obamacare grant.
Read the screed here.