Political Parties Fight Over Power
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2010— -- The celebrations following Tuesday's elections are over, and now the political parties are clashing amongst themselves.
The Democrats and the Republicans are both engaged in intraparty struggles to determine which members their caucus will hold leadership positions in the new Congress.
Republican euphoria was tempered by Michele Bachmann's announcement of her intention to run for the No. 4 position in the House: the Republican Conference Chairmanship. The GOP leadership has been prepared to back conservative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, but will now have to closely reexamine their options.
Bachmann formed a tea party caucus earlier this year with a few dozen members of the Republican Party, and told to ABC News on election night that she plans on forming a constitutional conservative caucus when she returns to Washington.
It is not yet clear if the newly-elected GOP members will join Bachmann's coalition, if some of them will attempt to form their own group, or if they will choose to stay independent.
ABC News Political Director Amy Walter contends that the Republican leaders will make every effort to avoid their first debate as the majority to be about whether they have done enough for tea party candidates.
"The concern if you're a Republican is, that instead of focusing on the issues, like overturning or stopping a lot of what the Democratic congress did, they're going to be spending a whole lot more time just repairing or worrying about potential riffs in the Republican caucus," Walter says.
When asked by "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer if tea party darling Michele Bachmann would be his choice for the GOP Conference chairmanship, presumptive Speaker John Boehner dodged the question.
"These decisions are made by all of the Republican members of our conference. Who the members decide ought to be in their leadership -- is their decision. And I'm going to respect that decision," Boehner said.
"My instinct is that we have a leadership table that reflects the broad group of members that are in our conference," Boehner said when Sawyer pressed him on whether he thought it would be important to have a tea party member in the GOP leadership.
