Ahead of yesterday's House vote to fund the federal government, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) painted the Republicans rebelling against Speaker John Boehner from the right as Scott Walker Republicans -- uninterested in compromise, single-minded in pursuit of a right-wing policy agenda.
The statement quickly diffused through the Capitol, and Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) -- an influential conservative and former Republican leader, who voted against the spending measure -- took kindly to it. On Twitter, Pence joked, "Sen. Schumer called us 'Scott Walker Republicans?' That's the nicest thing anybody has said about me in a long time!"
Turns out this is a view shared by both the so-called "Scott Walker Republicans" themselves, and Republicans who voted to pass the compromise plan.
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), who supports a grand bargain on spending, and voted with his leadership, put it bluntly. "I understand why Schumer would fear Scott Walker," Kingston said in a brief interview in the Speaker's Lobby, just off the House floor. "That's his -- what he doesn't understand is that's a pretty damn good compliment so people will take that."
On the other side of the GOP divide, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who strongly opposes passing any spending measure unless it's used as leverage to gut the health care law, had a similar view. "If I had to choose, I'd a lot rather be Scott Walker than Schumer," King told me. "I don't take that as an insult, and there are a lot more that are sympathetic and in Scott Walker's favor in our own conference."
One thing's for sure: All Republicans now own Scott Walker's actions. If they see abject refusal to compromise with Democrats, cynical destruction of middle-class working families and selling out states to corporate interests as complements, then yes, Scott Walker is the new face of the GOP.
That's the whirlwind they plan to reap, then by all means do so.
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