Apparently, the founder of RedState.com, Erick Erickson, one of the lead websites/bloggers in this country, must have watched Brad Pitt’s “Fight Club” in 1999.  Erickson wrote a column last week about a new group of conservatives in Congress which he called the Conservative Fight Club.

Erick Erickson  --  like a lot of conservatives  --  has been trying to get the Republicans in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to live up to their promise to defund ObamaCare.  In his email last Wednesday, Erickson pointed out that 105 Representatives signed a letter last year to Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, asking him not to bring any appropriations (funding) bills to the floor of the House of Representatives that contain funding for ObamaCare. 

Yet the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last Wednesday voted on a rule to allow the continuing resolution to provide federal funding for the rest of fiscal year 2013, ending September 30, to pass while  --  according to Erickson’s email  --  “enabling and funding Obamacare.”  Only 16 Republicans voted against this rule which effectively allowed full funding for ObamaCare. 

In his blog entry on Wednesday, Erickson urged his supporters in RedState, other conservatives, and the media “to take notice of the Conservative Fight Club shaping up in the House of Representatives.  There are ten members of the Conservative Fight Club.  They are the nine members of the House of Representatives who voted against the rule on the continuing resolution last Wednesday and voted against John Boehner for Speaker plus one guy who voted against today’s rule and was the ring leader the last time the GOP took out a Speaker.”  That Representative is Representative Matt Salmon, R-AZ, who was first elected to Congress with the revolutionary class of 1994 and served only six years after limiting himself to three terms. 

Erick Erickson’s email continues:  “The ten members of the Conservative Fight Club are Representatives Justin Amash (MI); Jim Bridenstine (OK); Paul Broun (GA); Louie Gohmert (TX); Tim Huelskamp (KS); Walter Jones (NC); Thomas Massie (KY); Steve Pearce (NM); Matt Salmon (AZ); and Ted Yoho (FL).  They are now the gold standard for conservatives in the House.” 

In the February 22, 2013 issue of “World” magazine, Edward Lee Pitts, wrote in his column “Twelve worried men” that “a small group of House conservatives view the nation’s debt as a threat worth risking a political career to fight.  Their decision may be bearing fruit.” 

OUTLIERS: Justin Amash, Jim Bridenstine, Paul Broun, Louie Gohmert, Tim Huelskamp, Walter Jones, Raul Labrador, Tom Massie, Mick Mulvaney, Steve Pearce, Steve Stockman, and Ted Yoho (from top left to bottom right)

Amongst the 10 Representatives listed in Erick Erickson’s Conservative Fight Club, all were listed in “World” magazine’s “Twelve worried men” article except Representative Matt Salmon.   

After last week’s historic 13 hour filibuster by Senator Rand Paul, R-KY  --  which reminded old-timers of the late North Carolina Senator, Jesse Helms, who singlehandedly powered the conservatives to victories in the Democrat-controlled Senate decades ago and became a conservative hero  --  there could very well be a similar Conservative Fight Club forming in the United States Senate. 

Members would include the only two major Senators  --  who are leading in the 2016 Republican presidential candidate sweepstakes  --  who voted no to the gigantic $620 billion tax increase on January 1^st:  Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.  Other members in the Senate’s version of the Conservative Fight Club would, of course, be the courageous Senator Ted Cruz, elected from Texas last November  --  who undoubtedly would have voted no to the tax increase bill 3 days before he was sworn-in to office  --  and Senator Mike Lee from Utah who also voted no on the tax increase bill which was the very last vote of the 112^th Congress in the Senate.

Regarding the issue which caused RedState’s Erickson to come up with the idea of the Conservative Fight Club, ObamaCare, it might very well be that one of those four Senators mentioned above, Senator Ted Cruz  --  a Senator for all of two months  --  will be the Senator to lead the fight to defund Obamacare in the new 113^th Congress, considering that the Republican-led House of Representatives was not up to the task.

Perhaps Senator Cruz  --  who played a major role in helping Senator Rand Paul in his filibuster last week  --   could lead a filibuster against the funding of ObamaCare in the continuing resolution which will be considered on the Senate floor this week. “The Washington Times” in an article on March 7, 2013 entitled “Sen. Ted Cruz:  Defund ‘ObamaCare’ until economy improves” reported that “Mr. Cruz, Texas Republican, said that increasing economic growth should be every federal lawmaker’s top priority.  ‘Obamacare does precisely the opposite,’ Mr. Cruz, a tea-party favorite, said Wednesday in a statement. ‘It is already hurting small businesses, reducing the hours Americans are allowed to work, forcing employers to drop coverage, and leading to substantial increases in healthcare premiums — especially for young people.’

“Within moments, Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, said he would join Mr. Cruz in his mission. ‘Although I would prefer a full repeal of Obamacare, we should at minimum delay its implementation until our country is experiencing real, sustained economic growth,' Mr. Lee said."

Americans can only hope that the membership in Congress’ Conservative Fight Club increases.