The Price Of Loyal-Tea

By being the most vocal opponent of Orange Julius's doomed plan in the Buckeye State's GOP delegation, OH-4 Republican Jim Jordan has apparently volunteered to join Democrat Dennis Kucinich as the other Congressman who loses their seat due to Ohio's redistricting.  The Columbus Dispatch:

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.

"He doesn't know it, but he solved a problem for Republican line-drawers by (figuratively) standing up and saying, 'I'm a jerk and I deserved to be punished,' " said one of the sources.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, frankly...and if the GOP civil war wasn't truly on before, then the Speaker of the House redistricting out the chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee absolutely started the music playing for this ballroom blitz.  This story went out over the wires this afternoon before today's Orange Julius 2.0 plan was to be voted on, and the message is absolutely clear that the Tea Party better follow Boehner or else.

Follow him right off the cliff, that is.  Popcorn, people.