Of course, there has to be someone from SC in the thick of it

In 1975, the US has a brief little skirmish in the recently-vacated Indochina called the Mayaguez Incident.

Where I was in college my fellow froshers got all heated up. They had missed all the big Vietnam War demos, but by damn, here was something to sink their teeth into.

So it is with the clown car that is the US House GOP freshmen:

Part of the reason House Republicans may not be able to put their futile efforts to repeal Obamacare behind them is that party freshmen won’t let them.

Now, four months in to Obama’s second term, as House GOP leaders promote modest measures and a gentler tone to rebrand the party, freshmen and their conservative allies are kicking it old school, demanding a frontal assault on the Affordable Care Act they know will fail.

At a Wednesday panel organized by the Heritage Foundation, conservative Republicans lamented that it’s been too long since they had the opportunity to vote to wipe out the Affordable Care Act in its entirety — and that the newest members haven’t had the chance yet.

“We need to get a vote on full repeal, and I’ve asked leadership for this. I’m a cosponsor of Michele Bachmann’s bill … that just goes straight at it for full repeal,” said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the chairman of the influential and deeply conservative Republican Study Committee. “We need to continue fighting for repeal. We need a clean vote on repeal.”

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) urged leadership to hold a repeal vote so freshman members can serve up the same anti-Obamacare talking points for their conservative constituents that more senior Republicans enjoy.

“If you’re a freshman — the guys who’ve been up here the last year, we can go home and say listen, we voted 36 different times to repeal or replace Obamacare. Tell me what the new guys are supposed to say,” he said. “We haven’t had a repeal or replace vote this year.”