have you seen me?
Posted on 02/25/2015 8:28:37 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Another empty threat or the last straw?
This is noteworthy, I think, not so much because there’s a legit prospect of mutiny as because it shows what a total strategic clusterfark the whole cromnibus/DHS/amnesty fiasco has been. Not only are Republicans at each other’s throats, there’s a nonzero chance that DHS may shut down this week because the Republican-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate simply can’t get on the same page. Imagine that. Imagine if the first big legislative standoff in the new GOP Congress ends with a stalemate between the two chambers rather than a stalemate between the GOP and Obama.
And all of this was perfectly foreseeable two months ago when Boehner signed off on the “cromnibus,” setting up a showdown on DHS funding over amnesty.
According to four senators at the lunch session, a frustrated Sen. Jeff Sessions angrily dismissed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan, arguing that his party should be prepared for an all-out battle with Democrats to ratchet up public pressure and force President Barack Obama to drop his immigration policies. But Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican who could face a tough reelection next year, sharply countered that McConnell’s plan was the only option to not hamper law enforcement agencies that rely on money from the Department of Homeland Security…
[S]everal House Republicans and their top aides have privately told POLITICO that a misstep by Boehner in this legislative skirmish could imperil his speakership. One said that Republicans would weigh trying to remove him from the position if he relents on his promise to fight the president’s unilateral action on immigration “tooth and nail.”…
In a sign of how difficult the path in the House is, one senior House Republican, who is close to party leaders and spoke anonymously to discuss strategy, said the Senate’s plan to send two bills to the House is “a joke.” Several top House Republicans believe the only way a clean funding bill can pass their chamber is if the DHS shuts down and pressure builds for a resolution.
Sessions reportedly told Senate Republicans he’s confident that a DHS shutdown would be blamed on Democrats, not Republicans, which seems … naive. But the Sessions/Ayotte squabble is a microcosm of the strategic blunder here by Republican leaders in failing to anticipate the rifts a DHS/amnesty maneuver would open up. You’ve got conservatives pitted against moderates, border hawks pitted against natsec hawks, people who want to bring President Overreach to heel pitted against people who want to show the GOP can run government without disruption, and even the House pitted against the Senate. It’s arguably the most embarrassing leadership mess by the GOP since they regained a foothold in government in 2010. This is how they chose to open two years of majority rule over the legislative branch. According to some reports, Boehner and McConnell haven’t even spoken in two weeks.
More than 20 House conservatives sent a letter to Boehner yesterday warning him not to follow McConnell’s lead by passing a “clean” DHS funding bill. Boehner can afford to lose 20 Republicans but not much more than that: He’s got 245 seats, so if 28 Republicans defect, he’ll have to go begging Pelosi and the Democrats for votes. Imagine that as the potential denouement of the GOP’s big power-of-the-purse gambit — John Boehner, commander of the largest Republican House majority in decades, groveling to the minority because his own side can’t even surrender to Obama’s outrageous immigration power grab without help. We’re at the point where O must be tempted to start making new demands of the GOP to see if he can make this capitulation even more total. Instead of insisting on a clean DHS funding bill, why not require Boehner and McConnell to give up on the Keystone pipeline too? Pretty soon, both of them will be willing to do nearly anything to get out of this stupid jam that they’ve created for themselves.
The way this ends, I assume, is with a short DHS shutdown followed by a clean funding bill in the House. Boehner can’t cave before the deadline, I think; if he forces a symbolic shutdown of a few days, he’ll at least show conservatives that he was more willing to hold the line than McConnell was. If he can escape from this with tea partiers convinced that it’s McConnell, not him, who’s the real squish in Republican leadership, that’ll be a small consolation prize. And if, as everyone expects, snap polls taken during the DHS shutdown show that the GOP’s getting most of the blame, that’ll blunt some of the conservative attacks once a clean bill hits the House floor. It’s one thing to cave when there’s merely a theoretical threat of political damage, it’s another to do it when you’re taking on water. That’s essentially what the GOP leadership’s arguing over right now: How much water should they be willing to take on before abandoning ship?
Update: If you believe the Examiner’s sources, this is an actual quote from Boehner at this morning’s caucus meeting, just a few days before the DHS deadline: “‘I haven’t had a conversation with McConnell but I will — today.’” No conversations until now? After two weeks of silence?
Change the “C” to “Collaborating” and that will be more correct.
screw going global, for now!
lets clean up the streets at home first - so we are not fighting on two fronts!
McConnell & Boehner “ We won! “
This is the end result of voting for the lesser of 2 evils for 20+ years. Eventually, all you have left is evil.
How can we surrender the most efficiently?
It's way past time for a new third party, and it needs to be put together soon.
And of course I expect the naysayers will arrive here shortly to shout the idea down. Those who do the most shouting, and attack anyone who even entertain the idea of a third party, are the current party hacks who stand to lose the most if the two party racket system is rousted from power.
And if you want to further infuriate the current two party regime, beat them over the head with the US Constitution and state's rights hard and often.
Scott Brown almost took out Kelly Ayotte's Democrat New Hampshire colleague, a sitting US Senator, using immigration as a centerpiece of his campaign. Not bad for a carpetbagger. So, how can a professional politician ignore a wildly popular issue and pretend that it would be a burden? Backing Jeff Sessions, upholding GOP hand on the Bible promises on securing the border IS good policy and GREAT politics that brings re-election.
Dumping GOP promises is the road to perdition and the Way of the Whig in American Politics. This is the last chance for the GOP. A third or more of GOP voters are ready to bolt now. What will the percentage be after another GOP-e, RINO, DC establishment betrayal... 50%, 60% or 70%? Take your pick.
Watch Palin take one month to launch a new party and strip the GOP of its Tea Party Members and end up with a GOP TEA coalition. Will this make Boehner's and McConnell's jobs easier.
Let our people go.
Boehner will not cave. He’ll courageously use his power to deliver all of DHS’ funding with empty promises to the conservatives (we’ll trade this for some cut, we’ll fight later, etc). The way he consistently lies to and manipulates conservatives is actually gutsy when you think of it. Invectives such as cavers, feckless, stupid, spineless, etc belongs to we the conservatives.
have you seen me?
Boehner and McConnell should have been in lock step on this thing all along. You have to present Obama with a united front or he will laugh you out of the building. That is what is happening.
The Republicans can rely on the votes of the well-heeled "big GOP donors" who bought off these senators and congressmen as far as I am concerned.
McConnell just needs to change the filibuster rules to a 51 majority, have the House version of the DHS bill voted on and passed, then change the filibuster rule back.
See he only has to change the filibuster rule to “get something done” ... to prevent the obstructionist dems from closing DHS. Use some of the same language the 0bama used to claim legitimacy for his amnesty... “the American people have suffered long enough with this democrat obstruction”, etc.
Of course it could have all been avoided by not doing the CRomnibus. Oy vey....
For the life of me I can’t see how any “leader” can lead us straight to defeat with victory in the farging hand!!!
“I don’t know why this is so difficult.”
You’re assuming the GOP wants to stop DHS’ funding and stop Obama’s amnesty. They don’t. So the difficulty is that fewer than 5 (probably 0) people in the senate want to stop Obama. Nothing that happens in Senate/house makes any sense until you realize that 95% of them are on board and the rest are either too weak to do anything or too stupid to see it.
Horsehockey! The Speaker is in no danger of removal. There is no procedure for removing a Speaker other than at the beginning of a new Congress.
If the Speaker folds, he may as well fold the big tent because it will be empty.
They may still have their big money cheap labor importing donors, but they won’t have voters.
For the Republic to survive, the GOP must die.
GOP-RIP
The question is, what had the GOP done to earn your money so far?
This has been true for a long time. Everyone should get it by now.
The more things change, the more things stay the same. It doesn’t matter if the GOP or Dems have a majority in Congress, the dems still run things.
It is key to any worthwhile discussion to keep one’s points within reality.
What exactly is the alternative to GOP? Either DEM or silly anarchist Libertarian. Some choice.......
There are plenty of conservatives now within the GOP, the problem is conservatives are less willing to play dirty politics. If anything, our ethics will be our downfall.
A lot of good conservatives - often independent of leadership - voted for Boehner in January. Not sure why, but they did...whether it was a new speaker campaign with too little too late, or whether their nuts were twisted hard enough to keep them on the reservation. There are bigger numbers, but it’s going to take something cataclysmic to get them all on the same page.
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