‘Wacko Birds’ Cloud Republicans’ Election Euphoria

By Albert R. Hunt - Feb 2, 2014, Bloomberg

Some Republicans envisioned a successful rope-a-dope strategy for this year’s elections: Don’t make mistakes, and let the Democrats stew in the juices of Obamacare and a strapped middle class.

That take-no-risks approach is unraveling. Congressional Republicans are offering proposals on major matters, and the party’s right wing -- whose members Senator John McCain called “wacko birds” -- is omnipresent in Washington and across the U.S.

Congressional Republicans have introduced initiatives on immigration, health care, and economic mobility and poverty that are creating policy and political fissures. There were four separate Republican responses to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last week.

House Speaker John Boehner wants his chamber to pass immigration reform. Any compromise that is acceptable to Hispanic and Asian-American groups draws fire from the party’s sizable nativist bloc and political consultants who don’t want to divert attention from their campaign against health-care reform. The speaker’s task is enormously complicated, the prospects uphill.

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