Posted on 12/05/2012 11:02:07 PM PST by neverdem
Republican leaders are punishing some of the party’s most conservative members. And they won’t go down without a yelp.
Everybody knew that Tim Huelskamp would make trouble in Washington. That was sort of the point of Tim Huelskamp. In 2009, when a safe Republican seat in western Kansas opened up, State Sen. Huelskamp established himself as the mad-as-hell candidate. He told conservative bloggers of his fight to defund Planned Parenthood, ban gay marriage, and keep Kathleen Sebelius out of the Obama cabinet. In one TV ad, as the mellow-looking Huelskamp climbed into a tractor, voters were told that he “went against his party leaders, and was kicked off his committee, for bucking the establishment and fighting wasteful spending.” He won easy.
History repeats. On Tuesday, the re-elected Huelskamp walked into a luncheon at the Heritage Foundation and told conservative activists how he’d just been booted from the Budget and Agriculture Committees. It was a “purge,” and his crime was being exactly as conservative as he’d promised.
“We’ve heard from multiple sources that someone walked in with a list of votes and said, ‘if you didn’t [fulfill] a particular scorecard on the ‘right’ votes—which by the way, in most cases, were not the conservative positions—we’re gonna remove you from committee.” The activists quietly chewed Chick-fil-A sandwiches as Huelskamp scorched his party leaders. “It confirms, in my mind, Americans’ deepest suspicions about Washington...
--snip--
On Nov. 14, conservative Rep. Tom Price lost a secret ballot election for a leadership post. The next day, the conservative Republican Study Committee gave its chairmanship to Rep. Steve Scalise, who’d been opposed by the group’s former leaders—like Tom Price...
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
HOUSE GOP LEADERS PURGED CONSERVATIVES USING SECRET CRITERIA LIST
We'll see who the Speaker is in January.
Republicans don’t fight liberals this way!
It is time for The area Party!
F’n IPad! TEA PARTY.
Boehner handed the Speaker’s job to Pelosi yesterday. Don’t be surprised if Boehner doesn’t switch parties, thinking he can prevent that.
Short of wearing a T-shirt with a photo of Helen Thomas on it..
How do you get rid of a Boehner in Congress?..
Send a strongly worded message. Yep! Works every time.
Check out #fireboehner on twitter. Michelle Malkin is trying to get it to trend.
Check out #fireboehner on twitter. Michelle Malkin is trying to get it to trend.
I have that same complaint with the iPad...lousy ‘autofill’.
But your point is not lost. Boehner AND Cantor (the Dandy) need to go.
I hadn’t heard that about Tom Price. That is not good news, he’s one of the good guys.
I think now is the perfect time to make the 3rd party. The conservative TEA Party. How many conservative “R”s will jump to the Tea Party from the GOPe actions?
Very few.
For a simple reason. If there is a new party, they won’t get any of the committee seats or other perks. They will be permenate back benchers who will be shunned by both sides. Very few congressmen will do that by choice. They get to used to the parties and the power.
Be careful what you wish for. The other choice would be SanFran Nan.
Time for true conservatives to take a stand. We need more like Price.
Boehner has the power to keep them off the “good” committees, but he doesn’t have the power to silence them or control their votes.
Office picks are another power issue, but IMO a trivial one. A true conservative will not trade a corner office for his vote. Work in a broom closet if you have to.
Apparently not, actually. The House rules require that the Speaker gain a majority of votes cast -- if no one gains a majority, the position is vacant until someone can get the necessary votes. In theory, 16 GOP abstentions (or vote for other than Boner or Pelosi) would be enough to deny a majority.
It used to be that party trumped person. The Supreme Court was the biggest issue. But with the disappointing ruling by Roberts, even that doesn’t matter now. And maybe Republicans will slow down how fast we are rolling down this hill, but that is all they are doing, slowing us down while we are still going down. Maybe it is time to accept that we need to get to the bottom very, very fast.
With that said, if the Republicans don’t hold the line on taxes, what is the point in supporting them. We sent them there to protect us against this slide and they aren’t doing it. Whether we support them or not, we are going the same way. Whether we support them or move to another party, nothing is changing.
And maybe it is time to start voting my conscience rather than the team that is most likely to win. As my son (not sure how he got so smart) commented to me after this election. As God’s people, can we vote for pro-choice candidates? Even if that candidate can help us financially... Maybe it comes down to that?
Where is Bachmann and the rest of the Tea Party caucus? Why aren’t they speaking out forcefully, with one voice, against the scorched earth tactics of RINO Boehner? It’s amazing how quickly politicians drink the kool-aid once they get to Washington. If we’re lucky we can get two terms out of a House member before they start to wobble. Some don’t even survive a single term. A motivated, principled and courageous Tea Party caucus could force Boehner to change his tune. If Bachmann et al. don’t speak out to protect the four who got tossed off the committees, they’ll be next.
I don’t know the people Boehner busted, I don’t know much about why he busted them.
I do know it was a damned stupid move.
One of many stupid Boehner moves.
I believe Boehners closest advisor is Jack Daniels.
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