Here’s is a thought for a slow vacation week.  Congress’s approval rating has dipped into the single digits.  Anyone with any intellectual honesty – whether liberal or conservative – should agree that we need wholesale change in the ranks of leadership in both parties.  Yet the Chamber of [Government-Run] Commerce is prepared to spend $50 million in order to protect the status quo.

The Wall Street Journal published an extensive story over Christmas detailing some of the efforts of party leadership and their corporate allies to keep the Republican Party a small tent – one which stands for nothing and appeals to nobody:

Republican leaders and their corporate allies have launched an array of efforts aimed at diminishing the clout of the party’s most conservative activists and promoting legislation instead of confrontation next year.

GOP House leaders are taking steps to impose discipline on wavering committee chairmen and tea-party factions. Meanwhile, major donors and advocacy groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Crossroads, are preparing an aggressive effort to groom and support more centrist Republican candidates for Congress in 2014’s midterm elections. […]

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce early next year plans to roll out an aggressive effort—expected to cost at least $50 million—to support establishment, business-friendly candidates in primaries and the general election, with an aim of trying to win a Republican Senate majority.

“Our No. 1 focus is to make sure, when it comes to the Senate, that we have no loser candidates,” said the business group’s top political strategist, Scott Reed. “That will be our mantra: No fools on our ticket.”

Well, if the Chamber is looking to avoid loser candidates they should start by pulling the plug on their support for Mitch McConnell.  He is losing to a liberal Democrat in a state Republicans carried by 23 points last year.  That’s a loser candidate if I’ve ever seen one.

Yes, indeed the Chamber is full of many ironies.  They supposedly represent business interests, yet they continue to perpetuate the powers that be in Washington – the very same forces that stifle business growth.  With their candidates, they help perpetuate Obamacare, which kills small businesses.  With their candidates, they help Democrats win on every debt ceiling fight, so that the federal government has unlimited money to propagate job-killing regulations.  And with their candidates, they ensure that we re-elect the current crop of failed GOP leaders who have given Democrats a defacto super-majority in the Senate.

Most amazingly, they are also spending millions of dollars pushing for amnesty and an unlimited supply of Democrat voters. These voters will help defeat their chosen Republican incumbents, thereby countermanding this year’s $50 million campaign.

In reality, the Chamber doesn’t stand for free markets or limited government.  They stand with the special interests and venture socialists as long as it helps the bottom line of their clients.  They are attracted to the strongest political forces on the block like flies are attracted to cow pies.  Hence, they will do anything in their power to protect the status quo.

Folks, if you like the status quo in Washington, the Chamber of Commerce has $50 million in banal political ads to sell you in the upcoming primary season.  Are you buying?