McCain v. Paul (Rand)

This should be good. You have establishment (McCain) v. insurgent (Paul) challenging one another over the sacred cow of Republican politics: the defense budget. Who will win? Only time will tell:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) sounded an alarm about some of the Republicans joining him in Congress next year, warning that they could affect the consensus on the war in Afghanistan and might pose challenges to free trade agreements and the defense budget.

"Rand Paul, he's already talked about withdrawals, cuts in defense," said McCain. "I worry a lot about rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party."

He talks earmarks too. If only he had mentioned Medicare/Social Security/Health Care it would have been a trifecta!

Original here.

From The "Yeah, That'll Happen" Files

Republicans cutting the defense budget? Some Tea Party members like the idea, will the rest of the party? How hard will they push this one (my guess: not much)? Will there be brush-back from the "establishment" (my guess: yes)?

More and more figures on the right — especially some darlings of the all-important tea party movement — are coming forward to utter a conservative heresy: that the Pentagon budget cow perhaps should not be so sacred after all.

Full story here.