News and Views For Conservative Pagans
Just wanted to give a quick update as to why there has not been any new posts. There has been a death in the family. Conservative Cauldron will be back up and running shortly, giving the Conservative Pagan community all the latest news and information.
Thank you all very much for your patience and understanding during this very difficult time.
Pro-Trump Republicans are looking to flex their muscles against the Republican establishment - and have set ousting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from his leadership role as one of their goals for the next Congress.
The battle for the soul of the GOP is front-and-center in Republican primaries all over the country, with conservatives lining up against establishment candidates and knocking McConnell's leadership.
Mitch McConnell has had some major influence over American politics for decades.
But the biggest thorn in Mitch McConnell's side? That would be former President Donald Trump. During Trump's time in office, the two were at least outwardly cordial, but McConnell was not helpful in passing the MAGA agenda - when it comes to immigration, trade, or other top issues.
The collegiality changed when McConnell needled Trump for challenging the 2020 presidential election results.
Since then, there has been no love lost between McConnell and Trump, and Trump certainly does not try to hide his dislike for McConnell anymore. That was on full display in a statement put out by Trump last weekend after McConnell cut a deal that would allow Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.
"What is wrong with this Broken Old Crow? He's hurting the Republican Senators and the Republican Party. When will they vote him out of Leadership?"
McConnell is also the target of many Republican candidates running for office throughout the country in 2022.
And if you happen to be someone challenging one of the "friends of Mitch" like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the GOP has already demonstrated they have no interest in you.
Florida Senator Rick Scott, who heads up the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said last month that "we support all of our incumbents."
Thankfully for Alaska Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka, who is challenging Murkowski, she has a different friend: Donald Trump.
Tshibaka is one of several candidates, like Blake Masters in Arizona, who do not support McConnell's leadership. She stated, “when I defeat Murkowski and become Alaska’s next U.S. senator, I will not support Mitch McConnell as leader."
Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who is running for Sen. Roy Blunt's soon-to-be-vacant seat, also echoed the same sentiments, saying, “That’s why as a Republican running for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat, I am committed to finding new leadership in the Senate when Republicans win back the majority in 2022."
McConnell isn't afraid of using hard-nosed politics, though.
After the death of former Kansas Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole, McConnell informed the Dole family that Dole's long-time event planner Tim Unes had allegedly been involved in some of the event planning at the Capitol on Jan. 6., and that he had been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 Committee.
Unes had been involved in planning Dole's funeral but was promptly, thanks to Mitch McConnell, relieved of those duties. Unes had been associated with Dole since his 1996 presidential campaign.
But it's not all daisies for Mitch. GOP donors are reportedly miffed that McConnell voted for the $1.2 infrastructure bill, and more than a few GOP Senators who have both publicly and privately took McConnell to task for working with Democrats to once again raise the debt ceiling, after back in October saying he would not.
That "old broken crow" just might be eating a bit of crow courtesy of Trump Republicans come November.
The door to Vice President Kamala Harris' office can't seem to stop swinging open, as now four different staff members have announced their departure since a CNN exposé claimed there were problems among staff in the White House.
Director of Press Operations for the Vice President, Peter Velz, and Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs Vince Evans will both be leaving Harris' office.
That's after two top staffers have done the same - Harris' press secretary Symone Sanders and communications director Ashley Etienne.
Sanders, so far the highest profile exit, said of her resignation in a letter:
"I'm so grateful to the VP for her vote of confidence from the very beginning and the opportunity to see what can be unburdened by what has been. I'm grateful for Tina and her leadership and her confidence as well. Every day, I arrived to the White House complex knowing our work made a tangible difference for Americans. I am immensely grateful and will miss working for her and with all of you."
The issues within the Vice President's office are apparently nothing new. A report from Politico from back in June, said that at least 22 current and former aides of Harris, and others close to the Biden-Harris administration, describe the office atmosphere as "tense" and "dour."
Some of those same people feel that in an attempt by Flournoy to protect Harris, the office environment that has been created is one where ideas that are brought up are either brutally dismissed, if not ignored altogether.
They say that Harris often will not take responsibility for sensitive issues and blames staff when trouble arises.
A report from CNN says that Harris and her allies feel she is not being put in a position to make the office of the Vice President her own. Joe Biden named her the immigration czar in March to deal with the crisis at the U.S. southern border. She has gone as far as El Paso once.
While the 2024 presidential election is still a long way off, Joe Biden says he will run for reelection. If that happens and he would be reelected, he would leave office at 86 years old. If there is this much animosity in Harris' office now, she may not have a political future to protect.
Karma could be preparing to bite back for some House Democrats in the form of losing their committee assignments - should the Republicans take over the House after the 2022 midterm elections. Earlier this year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was stripped of her committee assignments for comments she made before she was elected that some Democrats deemed controversial. Just last week, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was also stripped of assignments after he posted a cartoon video of himself "attacking" Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and swinging cartoon swords at President Joe Biden.
If 2022 goes the wrong way, some Democrats may regret it.
While House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stopped short of promising to remove certain Democrats from committee seats if the GOP gained the majority in the House, he did say that their positions could be contingent on the Democrats winning out in 2022. Of the far-left Democrats who have engaged in questionable behavior, McCarthy said they “will need the approval of a majority to keep those positions in the future.”
By many accounts, things could get ugly at election time next fall for Democrats.
A report from The Hill added it's own bit of snark, saying that the lawmakers who may be targeted for removal from their seats had never "embraced conspiracy theories" or "promoted violence against their political opponents the way Greene and Gosar have."
Really?
The list of Democrats in danger of losing committee seats reads like a list of the usual suspects.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), in her most famous of "non-violent" comments, said of anyone associated with the Trump administration,
“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere."
During the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, she encouraged those protesting the death of George Floyd to "get more confrontational," especially if they did not get the trial outcome they wanted.
Some would surely consider trying to intimidate a jury as being a bit more serious than a cartoon video.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), most famous (or infamous) for her 9/11 anniversary "some people did something" remark, has made other comments seen as anti-semitic, and back in June, compared the U.S. and Israel to terrorist groups.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a member of the all-important House Intelligence committee, and also an impeachment manager for former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, has been tied to a woman known as Christine Fang, who was suspected by the FBI of being a Chinese spy. (They of course found no wrongdoing.)
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) spent the better part of two years attempting to convince the American people that Donald Trump had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, and had evidence to prove it.
He actively promoted the long ago debunked Steele dossier that was at the core of the supposed scandal. The main source for the dossier has been indicted for lying about the majority of the claims in the dossier.
The "Russia collusion" story is surely the grandest conspiracy theory of the last few decades.
By the current look of things, Kevin McCarthy may get his chance to give some Democrats the boot. Democrats will have to contend with an unpopular president, whose approval numbers are in the 30s.
Biden is not seen as having done well on things like the pandemic, and inflation continues to rise and the economy continues to fall. Couple that with as many as 14 Democrats announcing their retirements and redistricting.
It is a perfect storm for Democrats to lose in 2022.
