News Nuggets 1287

DAYLEE PICTURE:  Kauai's Kalalau Trail in Hawaii.  From the Washington Post.

SEVERAL UP-FRONT BELOW-THE-RADAR POLITICAL NUGGETS!!
These next four items tie in with the issue I raised last week about the prospects for a real schism in the GOP.  As I noted, it is these state-level hard-core activist/campaign-junky types that are the bones and sinew of both parties -- and what are we seeing here? A strategist (who worked for Eric Cantor no less) who has just HAD IT with where the GOP is going -- then same thing for another GOP official in Iowa.  And then seven members of Maine's GOP committee saying they are LEAVING THE PARTY because Boehner et al (basically) are too compromising and weak! Seven!  Remember -- these are not just average voters.  These are the essential building blocks for a national party.  No wonder Boehner and other GOP establishment types are doing contortions to keep these people on side.  Based on these stories (and many others) it seems clear that moderate GOPers and a substantial number of Tea Party types are all moving to jump from the party altogether.
Veteran GOP Strategist Endorses, Advises McAuliffe from the Associated Press
"Longtime Republican political strategist Boyd Marcus is endorsing Democrat Terry McAuliffe for governor and will advise his campaign. Marcus was an architect of Republican former Gov. Jim Gilmore's 1997 successful campaign. He also has advised the campaigns of U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Richmond."

Iowa GOP County Chair Resigns, Says Party ‘Headed In Wrong Direction’ from Talking Points Memo
"The co-chairman of Iowa's Polk County Republican Party has stepped down and registered as an Independent, writing in a resignation letter that the GOP is "headed in the wrong direction," the Des Moines Register reported Tuesday."

Seven Members of Maine Republican State Committee Leave Party from the Portland Press Herald [of Maine]
"One of Maine's three voting members of the Republican National Committee and six other members of the Maine State Republican Committee have resigned and left the party, lambasting Gov. Paul LePage, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans for abandoning what they said are key principles for libertarians and conservatives. ... "(We) can no longer allow ourselves to be called nor enrolled as Republicans; we can no longer associate ourselves with a political party that goes out of its way to continually restrict our freedoms and liberties as well as reaching deeper and deeper into our wallets," reads the letter, signed by Maine Republican National Committeeman Mark Willis and 11 others. "We instead choose the path that focuses on ways to help our fellow Mainers outside of party politics.""

Republicans are Losing August (Taegan Goddard) from The Week
" Ten months after a brutal loss in the 2012 election, the battle for the heart and soul of the party rages. ... With Democrats defending many open Senate seats in red states, Republicans may see a "dead cat bounce" in the midterm elections. But make no mistake: The party is slowly breaking apart."

Obama's Egypt Policy Makes Perfect Sense (Aaron David Miller) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Barack Obama's Middle East policies have logic and coherence. Indeed, they follow strict directives that the president has imposed. I call them BHO's Five Commandments, and they tell you all you need to know about why the president does what he does from Cairo to Damascus."

Obamacare Exchanges Looking More Popular Than Expected (Jason Sattler) from the National Memo
"Though it received responses from fewer than half of the states, the estimates already surpass the seven million people the Congressional Budget Office predicted would take advantage of the exchanges in 2014."

The GOP’s Obamacare Youth Hoax (Matt Miller) from the Washington Post 
"It’s rare for a political party to trumpet a position that unintentionally reveals its myopia, incoherence and expediency. Yet such is the trifecta with the Republican campaign to call attention to Obamacare’s young “victims.” ... They think Obamacare is a form of injustice akin to slavery. Which makes employer-provided health care slavery on steroids. Where’s the outrage? If conservatives were consistent and principled, they would devote far more time and effort to liberating 20 million young Americans from the socialism baked into employer-based insurance and look past the Obamacare exchanges as a puny sideshow."

There Won’t be Any GOP Alternative to Obamacare (Jonathan Bernstein) from the Washington Post
"Conservative opposition to the Affordable Care Act has run Republicans into a brick wall."

Fast Food Strikes Go Nationwide on Aug. 29 (Laura Clawson) from Daily Kos 
"While the groundwork has been laid for the strikes thus far—in cities like New York, Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis—by serious organizing ahead of time, the call for a national strike clearly aims to spur workers in other places to self-organize, with an online toolkit and invitation to contact organizers."

Business Tries to Tame Tea-Party Conservatives It Helped Elect (Jill Lawrence) from National Journal
"Gridlock, shutdown threats, and default are on the table this fall as weapons in the spending wars."

Republicans Need to Get Real to Reach Fiscal Deal With Democrats (Charlie Cook) from National Journal
"It's difficult to understand why any Republicans on Capitol Hill would like their odds in any kind of budget showdown this fall that could result in a government shutdown. Very simply, they would be going into a game with an incredibly weak hand, and their odds of winning would be quite small."

Republicans are their Own Worst Political Enemy (Chris Cillizza and Sean Sullivan) from the Washington Post
"“The party is acting as if the entire world is a GOP primary,” said Mike Murphy, a prominent Republican campaign consultant. “That is a very dangerous way to operate. We have massive image problems with the greater electorate, and the silly antics of the purist wing are making our dire problems even worse.”"

Republicans May Need Nancy Pelosi to Bail Them Out (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"Top Democrats are increasingly convinced Republicans will simply not be capable of averting disaster in this fall's fiscal confrontations."

Republicans Move to the Center? Nope, They’re Crazier Than Ever (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"If you thought the GOP would adopt more moderate positions after its 2012 debacle, you were wrong. From debate threats to defunding Obamacare and even more purges, Michael Tomasky on how the insanity’s only increasing."

But Can the GOP Revise the Party? (Bill Schneider) from Reuters
"Republicans do have a debate problem. ... many Republican candidates are outside the mainstream on issues like climate change and evolution and contraception and immigration and rape and safety net programs. It looks like Republicans are trying to hide something. But the debates are not the party’s problem. The party is the party’s problem."