Posted on 06/20/2014 4:57:45 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
What if conservatives in Congress conceded the Republican majority leader battle in order to win the larger leadership war?
After Eric Cantor’s surprise primary defeat and his subsequent announcement that he would be resigning his leadership position at the end of July, many on the right urged someone with stellar conservative credentials, like Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, to challenge Cantor’s heir apparent, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, for the majority leader spot.
But Hensarling opted not to run and McCarthy cruised to victory Thursday after a nominal challenge by Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador. Some conservative pundits who longed for someone like Hensarling to jump in the race blasted House conservatives for failing to mount a stronger effort for the number two spot in House GOP leadership.
“But let us also be frank here — House conservatives overall have embraced their caricature,” RedState’s Erick Erickson wrote. “The criticism in Washington of the House conservatives is that they are great at blowing sh’tuff up, but terrible at leading.”
I don’t necessarily disagree with Erickson, but it is possible that Erickson and others are missing a major strategic gambit by Hensarling and, by extension, House conservatives. What if Henarsling opted not to fight the majority leader battle so he had more time to organize for an insurgent campaign for speaker?
Look at what Hensarling said in his statement last week after declining to run for majority leader. ”After prayerful reflection, I have come to the conclusion that this is not the right office at the right time for me and my family,” he said.
Perhaps Hensarling believes the right office is speaker and the right time is this fall. After the 2012 presidential election, conservative insurgents almost mustered enough votes to force Boehner out as speaker.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
What power does Majority Leader have anyway? It's the equivalent of being VP to the President.
Bttt
It makes a lot of sense to wait until fall. There may be more Tea Party
surprise primary victories to come such as McDaniel and NY-22.
In addition, about 13 Bonehead allies are retiring from congress.
New re-inforcements will be coming in.
Does Hensarling have at least 218 Republican votes?
Let's think like Ms. Pelosi for a moment.
Assume, for the sake of the argument, that the Democrats do not obtain a majority in the House (as is likely), and lose their majority in the Senate (which is less likely but quite possible).
You realize that little of the Dem's agenda is going to be passed by Congress for the last two years of the Obama administration. You might be able to get immigration reform (i.e., amnesty) passed if Boehner remains Speaker and McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader, but the credit would be "bipartisan."
On the other hand, if you get Hensarling as House Speaker, you have the perfect punching bag. You can do to him what you did to Gingrich 20 years ago: use every arm of the media available to you to make him look like a right-wing nutcase who will burn down the country, starve little children, have all women stuck in the kitchen with unwanted pregnancies, force homosexuals and lesbians back into the closet, destroy schools, send all Latinos back to Mexico, and put all black people back into slavery.
Moreover, you could present the Speaker vote (before you crank up the character assassination, of course) as an attempt on your part to establish bipartisanship, by refusing to run for Speaker, and publicly "freeing" the Democrats to vote for the GOP Speaker of their choice; this way the blue state Dems could vote "present," the red state Dems could vote for Hensarling, and Boehner would lose.
Given the situation, it's a win-win-win for you. You win, because you look bipartisan, and later can look genuinely hurt when, through your own behind-the-scenes maneuvers, nothing ever gets accomplished. You also win, because you have your punching bag, which you won't get with Boehner, nor with McConnell. Then you win, because in 2016 you can run, not against the GOPe nominee (Bush, Christie, Romney, you don't care), but against Mr. Devil himself, Hensarling, and push for everyone who is rushing to the polls to vote for Hillary! as the first woman president to also vote for Dems down the ticket--which is your best chance, in 2017, to take the gavel back as Speaker.
I wouldn't put it past her.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.