Jackson Free Press

If one lesson that came out of the recent showdown over opening the federal government and paying the nation's bills, it's that deep fissures persist within the Republican Party.

As evidence, consider the case of Mississippi where U.S. Reps. Alan Nunnelee and Steven Palazzo voted against the bipartisan compromise crafted in the Senate to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling so that the bills owed—from budgets already passed and funds the House already appropriated—might be paid.

The four other members of the Magnolia State delegation—U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran, Reps. Bennie Thompson and Gregg Harper—voted for the compromise bill. Thompson is the lone Democrat representing Mississippi in Congress.

The shutdown resulted revenues worth $24 billion lost, increases in treasury-bills interest (meaning higher costs in debt service for the country), 0.6 percent shaved off GDP growth and countless people denied government services.

Nunnelee and Palazzo defended their votes on the resolution, saying it did nothing to address the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or reduce spending.

"Every day, there is more evidence the 'Obamacare' train wreck is destroying the health insurance market and driving up costs on hardworking families. Every day, the mountain of debt our grandchildren will have to repay grows larger. Every day, we see more grim news about people struggling to find jobs. In order to save the American dream for present and future generations, it is our duty to attack these problems head on," Nunnelee told reporters after the vote.

Cochran also acknowledged that government spending and debt should be reduced over the long term, but agreed with Wicker that sniping over the Affordable Care Act was not work risking the nation's credit worthiness.

Seizing on the unpopularity of the agreement within Tea Party political circles, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, 41, used the news as a springboard for his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

McDaniel, a Republican from Ellisville, has been carefully polishing his resume for months, which includes forming an 11-member conservative coalition in the Mississippi Senate. In September, McDaniel participated in one of the stops on the Tea Party Express' nationwide bus tour that took aim at congressional Republicans the group believes have done too little to oppose President Barack Obama, including Wicker and Cochran.

Cochran, 75, is up for re-election in 2014, and the way he continues to build his campaign war chest, which is approaching $1 million, indicates that he will likely make one more run even if he does not serve the entire term. If that happens, McDaniel's name will appear on the same ballot as Cochran's in a Republican primary next summer.

In his announcement speech at the Ellisville courthouse, McDaniel took aim at Cochran for voting in favor of the deal to restart the federal government, adding that conservatives should not compromise their core principles of fiscal restraint.

"I've got 17 trillion reasons not to compromise," McDaniel said, referring to the federal debt ceiling, which recently became a point of contention that caused a partial federal government shutdown.