Infighting breaks out in GOP over Senate leadership posts

Infighting has broken out among Senate Republicans over what their leadership team should look like next year, reflecting broader tensions between the party establishment and conservatives.

Republican lawmakers are split over the question of whether Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a close friend of presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), should have a chance to join the leadership.

{mosads}They debated the touchy subject during a lunch meeting Tuesday but emerged without consensus.

Conservative activists are lining up behind Lee, but many Republican senators are siding with their leaders.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters after the meeting that the internal conference rules support keeping his entire leadership team in place for another two years.

But Lee told colleagues behind closed doors that he disagrees. He believes there’s now an open seat at the leadership table for him or another up-and-coming lawmaker.

Lee has told colleagues in phone conversations that Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) must step down from his post at the end of the year because of term limits, and Lee wants to take his place.

The Utah Republican said at Tuesday’s meeting that he will not challenge Barrasso if it is decided the term limit doesn’t kick in until the end of 2018, but he’s making a forceful argument that Barrasso has only eight and a half months left under the current rules.

Lee now serves as chairman of the Senate Republican Steering Committee, which in recent years has been tasked with generating conservative policy ideas.

Under his interpretation of the rules, two other GOP leaders, Senate Republican Conference Committee Chairman John Thune (S.D.) and Vice Chairman Roy Blunt (Mo.), must also step down in January.

The discussion about the rules sparked some drama. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) delivered a stinging criticism of Lee’s bid, according to a lawmaker who was present.

One lawmaker grumbled that Lee is trying to position himself as an adversary of the establishment to raise his profile.

“He’ll go to these groups and say the establishment is trying to shut me out of leadership,” said the lawmaker, who requested anonymity to discuss Lee’s bid.

But other Republicans think the leadership team would benefit from some turnover.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the only senator to endorse GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, said, “There’s nothing wrong with new blood.”

He added, “It might be a good signal to voters to have Mike Lee sitting at the table when decisions are getting made.”

FreedomWorks, a leading conservative advocacy group, endorsed Lee for leadership on Tuesday morning.

“We could not be more excited that Sen. Lee is seeking this post. If he is elected, it would be a tremendous boost to grassroots conservative activists across the country and a sign that Senate Republicans are ready to pursue a bold policy agenda,” said FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon.

Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action for America, another conservative group, praised Lee as someone “well positioned to lead the Republican Party’s policy efforts on a multitude of issues.”

But McConnell tried to shut down talk Tuesday that Thune, Barrasso or Blunt have to step down.

The GOP conference rules state that “a senator shall serve no more than three terms in any elected party leadership position,” but that standard does not apply to the Senate majority or minority leader.

At issue is whether the partial term Thune, Barrasso and Blunt served in their leadership posts in 2012 — an aberration caused by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) stepping down as conference chairman in the middle of the 112th Congress — should count against their term limits. If it does, they must leave their posts in January.

McConnell is arguing they can serve another two years beyond 2016.

“I think I can safely say it’s been the position of the conference that a partial term does not count toward the three-term limit,” McConnell told reporters.

Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) predicted Tuesday that Lee would ultimately back down.

“I don’t believe if Sen. Barrasso runs for reelection that Sen. Lee would challenge him,” Cornyn said, adding that most senators agree with McConnell’s view of the rules. “I don’t think there’s any confusion.”

Several Republican senators, including Sens. Deb Fischer (Neb.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska), said Tuesday they would back Barrasso for leadership if he’s deemed eligible and decides to run again.

Laura Dove, the Senate Republican secretary who is close to McConnell, made a presentation at Tuesday’s lunch arguing that several precedents support allowing Thune, Barrasso and Blunt to serve another two years in their leadership roles, according to lawmakers who attended.

One precedent she cited is from the 107th Congress, when Republicans controlled the Senate for only five months in 2001 before former Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont switched parties, putting Democrats in charge.

The Senate GOP conference then decided the partial term of majority control should not count against term limits for committee chairmen. Dove argued that precedent is relevant to the debate over leadership term limits.

Another precedent under discussion involves former Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.), who served as Senate Republican whip from June of 1996 to the end of 2002.

His case is cited by both sides, because while his partial term in the second half of 1996 — created by then-Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole’s (R-Kan.) decision to run for president — didn’t count against his six-year term limit, his time as a member of leadership in the minority did. That indicates the precedent of ignoring partial terms for committee chairmen did not then apply to leadership positions.

The person who benefited from Nickles stepping down because of a term limit?

McConnell, who became the Senate Majority whip in 2003.

Jordain Carney contributed.