Posted on 09/15/2013 5:55:13 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This report is coming from The Hill and relies pretty much on “Republican lawmakers” and staffers “speaking on condition of anonymity” so factor that in. But given what we’ve heard from some other members over the last couple of months, I wouldn’t find it terribly surprising if this were true.
Republican lawmakers are growing increasingly frustrated with what they say is a lack of communication from their leaders.
Both centrist and conservative members in the House believe that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his lieutenants could have done more earlier this year to counter the Tea Party’s effort to defund ObamaCare. Some Republicans on Capitol Hill say such an effort is politically impossible with a Democratic-controlled Senate and a Democrat in the White House. Regardless, the rift on what to do on ObamaCare has opened up a civil war within the GOP.
The complaint is similar to ones we’ve heard before, citing people who warned the Speaker to “get out in front” of the issue of demands to defund Obamacare, shutting down the government, etc. etc. before it turned into a civil war in the press. And, of course, Ted Cruz is cited as the chief fly in the ointment. The new complaint is that the leadership spent too much time fundraising for 2014 and failed to communicate with the members.
One member, however, was willing to go on the record and said that the communications problem wasn’t between Boehner and the members… it was that the Speaker isn’t listening to the voters.
“The leadership, because of other obligations they have during the August recess to raise money and meet with groups, may not have had as many town hall meetings in their specific districts as rank-and-file members, and so they may not have been aware of how strongly the message was delivered to those of us who did stay in our districts the entire August recess,” Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said.
One last pair of gems from this selection of quotes… also anonymous.
“Boehner should have shut it down before we left … Cruz started talking about this before we left and Boehner should have said, ‘We’re not doing that and this is why.’ Just shut it down!,” the legislator said.
Many GOP lawmakers share that frustration privately and several have gone so far as to call their party “leaderless.”
“Here we are complaining about a president who can’t lead [on Syria], who leads us into this morass and we’re doing the same things to ourselves on ObamaCare, on the debt ceiling,” one conservative complained.
If you read the entire report, it seems that the only person they could find who actually supported Cruz on the Obamacare question was Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) who called it an opportunity of a lifetime. Others, such as John Shimkus and Presidential hopeful Peter King both wanted to find some way to say, can’t we all just get along?
If this reporting were even remotely close to being a representative sample of Congress, it would make it sound as if Cruz is pretty much fighting on a team that numbers in single digits. That sounds fairly unlikely, but we won’t know the real numbers until some of these budget questions begin coming up for a vote – assuming the House can agree on anything to vote on – in the next few weeks.
Even though large tracts of America has fallen or may fall into the grip of the Democratic Party and all the odious apparatus of socialist rule, we shall flag and fail. We shall not go on to the end. We shall not fight in DC, we shall not fight on the seas and oceans.... We shall surrender on the beaches, we shall surrender on the landing grounds, we shall surrender in the fields and in the streets, we shall surrender in the hills; we shall always surrender.
And if I remember, It got his attention! This is not something that should be stopped but continued and eventually it might even wake Boehner up! Well, not really make him into a non-RINO but may just give him pause - enough to allow real Conservatives to play...
bump
Thank you, Ted Cruz, for standing up and standing for something!
The power of the purse in the house is enormous. A speaker with manhood (a eunuch has more than Boehner) would say, “Read my lips: no new taxes,” and walk out of any meeting where they are mentioned.
I can dream...
Everybody at our company is freaking out because of the annual enrollment and the changes that will take place. Me, I am not signing up for any Obamacare/government exchange, I am not paying the fine, and I'm doing all my healthcare overseas until the damn thing collapses. I am not putting my faith into the Stupid Party to do the right thing and defund it, which they should've done 2 years ago.
One thing missing from this debate....STAFFERS!
Not the ones that answer the phones or do goffer work....Im talking about the backroom a$$wipes. No one knows their names outside of DC yet these sleazy slimey scumbags think they are the ELITES. They move from one member of congress to another...often are shared.
This is the group that needs to be exposed..NAMES!
perhaps the journalist that wrote this didn’t know the difference from senate and representatives. Or its all an outright lie...
Yes. Article 1, Sec. 2 of the Constitution states only that the House shall choose their Speaker. There is no tacit requirement that the Speaker actually be a member of the House.
Amen! Going along to get along has no value.
a lot of us are happy he can’t
But there is no doubt the system has been corrupted, such that both representatives and senators are creatures of their parties. They must continually whore for money.
As long as both houses of congress are largely responsible to party leaders for their jobs, there is little chance our republic will survive.
It is time to return to our framers’ design of divided power, between the states and federal government. It wouldn't be a panacea, but making senators responsible again to fifty state legislatures would break the lock that party leaders have on their members.
Oh, would that be the same “Republican lawmakers” and staffers“ who managed to get themselves exempted from the worst parts of ObamaCare? They're pissed? "Public servants", my ass...
Ted Cruz is shaming Boehner by speaking out even though that is or should be Boehner’s job as well, afterall isn’t he the SPEAKER of the House.
Cowardice, thy name is “GOP.”
It would be possible but improbable.
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.