October 17, 2017 11:18 AM UTC

Gardner on Bannon Insurgency: This is Fine!

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• by: Colorado Pols

Bloomberg News tracks the growing Republican unease over Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist now masterminding what appears to be a nationwide insurgency against the “establishment” GOP–after toppling appointed GOP incumbent Sen. Luther Strange of Alabama in favor of freak-right icon Roy Moore, and at least some manner of contact with prospective Colorado GOP gubernatorial contender Tom Tancredo:

Steve Bannon won’t abandon his war against congressional Republican incumbents, not even after President Donald Trump publicly pleaded for a truce that could salvage the tax overhaul at the heart of his legislative agenda.

Trump’s ousted chief strategist will continue to back insurgent candidates who pledge to usurp Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a person familiar with Bannon’s plans said. His message was made plain on Monday on the Breitbart News website he once again runs: “Bitter Mitch! Triggered by Bannon,” one headline crowed…

Trump is “frustrated” with Senate Republicans over the health-care failure and the challenges that have surfaced in the process of overhauling the tax code, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said Tuesday.

“Republicans need to start figuring out a way to pass stuff, and not look for reasons not to pass stuff,” Mulvaney said on Fox News. “They ran promising tax reform, and we’re sort of hitting a hurdle on that.”

The Trump administration’s tacit support for Bannon’s threats to primary backsliding incumbents and fielding of hard-right pro-Trump candidates for open seats, an acknowledged fact whatever the administration may say publicly on any given day, is primarily a blow against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s support for Luther Strange in Alabama, which the Trump administration keyed off of, marked a breaking pint for loss-averse Trump personally. Trump is keenly aware of the discontent among the conservative rank-and-file with the establishment GOP, having ridden it to power, and wants to ensure he remains on the side of right-wing establishment discontent instead of becoming another target.

Where does all of this leave Sen. Cory Gardner, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) who reports directly to McConnell–and pivoted seamlessly from opposing Roy Moore in Alabama to backing him after he won the primary?

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill downplayed Bannon’s threat.

Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Bannon is helping the party in some instances, backing candidates for Democrat-held or open seats who have a good chance of prevailing in their general elections in states like West Virginia and Tennessee.

The fact is, Gardner is in an impossible situation. As everyone who has followed Republican politics in Colorado knows, the NRSC is deeply involved in the GOP primary process in any strategically valuable Senate race. Examples abound: Scott McInnis being forced out of the 2008 U.S. Senate race in favor of Bob Schaffer. Jane Norton openly favored by the NRSC in the 2010 primary. And of course, Gardner himself cleared the field in 2014 with the full support of the organization he now chairs.

But that’s not the dynamic anymore. The NRSC isn’t in charge anymore, and the Alabama Senate primary proved it. That’s why the NRSC’s fundraising is drying up, and Trump is looking outside the party’s power structure for candidates who will carry out his agenda. This is a huge threat to Gardner’s own political power, which is tied to McConnell’s and that of the pre-Trump GOP establishment. As the (nominal) chief political strategist for Senate Republicans, Gardner has to make the best of whatever Bannon gives him to run with in 2018. And he can’t do anything publicly to complain.

For if it prosper, none dare call it an insurgency.