Pete Sessions: House GOP learning from Taliban

The House GOP was having a great week ... until Pete Sessions, their new fundraising director, told Hotline editors his conference was taking its cues from insurgents — like the Taliban.

We're talking about a major new Democratic talking point here, folks. Major.

"Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban," Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. "And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban — I'm not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that's not what we're saying. I'm saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with."

DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen seized the opportunity, saying he was "shocked" — although he was probably also a wee bit delighted.

“NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions’ remark comparing his own party’s tactics during the economic recovery debate to those of a terrorist group in Afghanistan is truly shocking. While House Republican leaders profess to seek bipartisanship, they are comparing their tactics to the violent tactics used by the Taliban insurgency. NRCC Chairman Sessions should put partisanship aside and join our fight to urgently turn our economy around and get Americans working again.”

Glenn Thrush is senior staff writer at Politico Magazine.