Tuesday, November 20, 2012

John Boehner crushes conservatives in House en route to helping his beloved democrats and getting media adoration from his Beltway constituency which is his only constituency

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11/20/12, “Boehner’s Irony,” Daniel Horowitz, Madison Project, (cross posted at Red State)

For those of us who thought that John Boehner was weak and flaccid in the face of adversity, we might consider rethinking our estimation of him.  The Hill has a very informative article out today detailing all of Boehner’s recent power grabs and scorched-earth maneuvering in order to crush conservative opposition in the House.

After locking up the top three leadership spots for himself, Cantor, and McCarthy, Boehner made sure to deny conservatives the number four slot:
  • “Yet Boehner’s internal support was on display when McMorris Rodgers, his favored candidate, captured the No. 4-ranked GOP leadership post.
  • The battle to be the head of the House GOP conference was a hard-fought one between McMorris Rodgers and former Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (Ga.).
  • Boehner never officially endorsed McMorris Rodgers, but his support for her was well-known. Price, meanwhile, was backed by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)."
Then he co-ops Paul Ryan, a man who likes to play team ball, in an effort to get his seal of approval on the impending fiscal cliff capitulation:

Boehner was quick to include Ryan, back from the presidential campaign trail, in a small group of key lawmakers advising him of strategies ahead of the fiscal-cliff negotiations with the White House.

The appointment was a shrewd one; if Ryan endorses a fiscal-cliff pact, many conservatives in the House will fall in line.

Then, Boehner proceeded to stack the Steering Committee with his acolytes.  The Steering Committee is responsible for doling out committee assignments to the entire House GOP Conference.  The Steering Committee is comprised of all leadership members, Fred Upton, Dave Camp, Hal Rogers, Paul Ryan, and a number of leadership allies.  Worse yet, he gave himself multiple votes: 
  •  "Boehner rewards loyalty, and his power on the GOP Steering Committee — which selects panel chairmen and other committee slots — has been expanded.
  • Boehner now has five votes on the committee, up from four. Cantor has three and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has two, while everyone else registers one vote. 
Lastly, they moved to crush any organized conservative opposition through the Republican Study Committee by helping install Steve Scalise as chairman.  Scalise has committed to working closely with leadership at a time when leadership has committed to banishing conservatives from all levers of power. 

When you step back and reflect on these hardball tactics of the Speaker, it is tough to overlook the irony behind his ultimate motivation.  Boehner is employing scorch-the-earth tactics against conservatives……so he can have free rein in capitulating to Democrats on a laundry list of policy items. 

We find the same thing during primary challenges from conservatives.  The establishment candidates, who tend to fold like cheap accordions before their Democrat masters

while in office, transform into uncompromising truculent fighters who seek nothing short of unmitigated destruction of anyone and anything in their path to power in seeking the nomination.  Yet for some reason this sort of aggressiveness is only reserved for conservative adversaries.

I’ve got a novel idea: Boehner should start dealing with Obama the same way he deals with conservatives.  There’s a reason why 

Republican ideas are more popular 

than Republican officials.

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Boehner in 2011 and 2012 needed Democrat votes to pass things he wanted for his buddy Obama. To avoid that happening again, he’s crushing conservative voices up front. The only reason the ‘fiscal cliff’ is happening is because Boehner (and McConnell) caved to Obama the last time it came up, agreeing to put the matter off til after the election so Obama would have no trouble being re-elected. So we have a 1 party system. 

11/20/12, “Boehner tightens grip on rank and file to maximize power in ‘fiscal cliff’ talks,” The Hill, M. Hooper

He (Boehner) has needed Democratic votes to pass bills on averting a government shutdown and raising the debt limit.”…

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Having nothing to do with money but everything to do with helping Obama get re-elected, Boehner and McConnell agreed to postpone money talks until after the 2012 election:

7/31/11, “The debt limit would be increased in two stages, both of which would occur automatically — a key Democratic demand that would prevent a repeat of the current crisis before the next election.

7/31/11, “Sources: Debt deal calls for up to $2.8 trillion in savings,” CNN

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Ed. note: The Tea Party came into existence and gave Boehner the speaker's job because we saw our government had become nothing more than wholesale theft, a criminal operation on both sides. It turns out Boehner didn't want the new people we gave him. He feels as one with democrats. He despises those of us out here without a voice.

The selling out of America is complete.

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"America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution," Angelo Codevilla, July 2010

"The only serious opposition to this arrogant Ruling Party is coming not from feckless Republicans but from what might be called the Country Party -- and its vision is revolutionary."...
 

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