Republican Party leader leaves, short of breath and in a rage (7)
I believe the answer is:
ranting
'in a rage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'republican party leader leaves short of breath' is the wordplay.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'party leader' becomes 'p' (I've seen this in other clues).
'leaves' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'short of breath' becomes 'panting' (I've seen this before).
'panting' with 'p' removed is 'anting'.
'r'+'anting'='RANTING'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for ranting that I've seen before include "Raving, haranguing" , "Making a loud and angry speech" , "Shouting wildly" .)