Republican congressional leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have become a big, wide target on the 2016 campaign trail. Not just for Democrats, as you’d expect, but for presidential candidates of their own party who are calling out the House speaker and Senate majority leader for not doing more to advance a conservative agenda in Congress.
Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the most anti-establishment candidates in the field, has taken the lead in criticizing the GOP leaders. Even some of the more establishment-oriented candidates like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have heaped blame on them.
Those candidates are playing to a sentiment that is running strong in Republican activist ranks: Many conservatives are bitter with disappointment that, even after Republicans won control of both the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014, party leaders are not fighting harder for conservative ideals.
Messrs. Boehner and McConnell have faced these attacks for years from grassroots activists. But now the complaints are coming from the political heights of the presidential campaign as well.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, speaking during the GOP presidential debate Wednesday night, complained that Congress hadn’t passed legislation to repeal the “Obamacare” health-care law, defund Planned Parenthood, or block the Iran nuclear deal.
“We won the Senate. We won the House,” Mr. Jindal said, in the debate among second-tier presidential candidates at the Ronald Reagan Library and Foundation in Simi Valley, Calif. “What was the point of winning those chambers if we’re not going to do anything with them?”
That kind of anger was expressed more personally and bluntly on a protest sign held aloft at a recent demonstration against the Iran nuclear deal: “Boehner McConnell–Repugnant Traitors.”
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
