Republican Study Committee Director Abruptly Fired in Likely “Establishment v. Grassroots” Feud

Paul Teller, executive director of the Republican Study
Committee, “the caucus of House conservatives,” was abruptly fired
today. Why might you care?
National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar has the
analysis:

The Republican Study Committee Chairman fired its
longtime executive director, out of concern he was leaking
confidential conversations to conservative groups hostile to
Republican interests. They’re at odds with each other over
political strategy, with the Club for Growth keeping its powder
dry, while the Senate Conservatives Fund is eagerly looking for
opportunities to challenge sitting Republican senators who are
ideologically unkosher…..

Politico on
what happened and why:

a lawmaker present [at the meeting where his firing was
announced] told POLITICO “Paul was divulging private,
member level conversations and actively working against strategies
developed by RSC members,” said the senior GOP aide familiar with
the group…

If there were any staffer on Capitol Hill that were nearly as
powerful as a member of Congress, it was Teller. He has been
involved in conservative strategy for more than a decade, helping
drag legislative debates to the right. But he often chafed on
Republican leadership, who saw him as causing intra-party
drama. 

That drama, as one person close to D.C. conservative activism
tells me, was mostly on the side of conservative movement types vs.
the political establishment of the Party per se.