Posted on 05/14/2006 5:49:04 PM PDT by AmericaOne
From a couple of earlier FR post, ”Bush set for immigration speech and ”House/Senate Conference: Hastert Turning His Back On Us????”, it appears that Speaker Hastert is indicating that he favors appointing members who support amnesty to the Conference Committee. Both President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist are pressuring Hastert to secure a guest worker amnesty for which the President can claim credit by stacking the Conference Committee with amnesty backers!
We need to REALLY put pressure on the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus (Tancredo, Hayworth, King, etc.) to start flexing some of their own political muscle.
Tancredo, Hayworth and the rest of the 90 + members of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus (CIRC) still have a very powerful ace up their sleeve, if they are willing to use it.
If these reports are true and Hastert will do whatever it takes to get an Amnesty bill thru the House, then what the CIRC has to do is first go up to Hastert and warn him that if he packs the House side of the Conference Committee with those who favor amnesty and/or tries any shenanigans in getting an Amnesty bill thru the House (like he did for the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan), then they will do the following:
1. Immediately announce that they are publicly withdrawing their voting support for Speaker Hastert, probably by temporarily leaving the Republican Caucus. That would mean that Speaker Hastert would no longer have the majority of votes in the House to remain speaker. Remember, for voting on the Speaker of the House, the whole house votes for the Speaker, not just the majority party. Remember the bru ha ha a few years back when a Democrat crossed party lines to vote for Hastert as Speaker.
2. This would then force Hastert out as Speaker immediately, since he no longer has the majority of the House backing him as Speaker.
3. There would then be two possibilities of this:
a. This would mean that if the GOP wants the next Speaker to be from the GOP for the rest of this Congress, then they had better pick someone who the CIRC approves of. The CIRC can really show some leverage here, either they will cast their votes for someone who agrees with them on immigration or if they do not support whom the rest of the GOP puts up as Hastert’s replacement, they then can:
b. The CIRC membership does not cast a vote for Speaker, sits out the election and Pelosi picks up the Speaker ship by default (YIKES). I doubt the rats would vote to retain Hastert or any other Republican as speaker.
The CIRC potentially holds an awful lot of leverage and power here, if they are willing to exercise it. I suggest we all contact the members of the CIRC and remind them of this. Give them the encouragement they need to pull this off, if it is needed. Below is the link to the CIRC membership where you can get contact info for their members:
http://tancredo.house.gov/irc/members.html
I know this is a stretch, maybe even a “Nuclear Option”, but it can happen and should happen (option a. above, hopefully), if this story is true and Hastert intends on selling the American People out. If this story is true, then Hastert deserves to be FIRED IMMEDIATELY by his House colleagues.
LOL!
Middle of the night and can't sleep. When you get a chance, can you post something that makes clear exactly what needs to be said so that I can e-mail each of these members?
Since you started the thread and have a good understanding of what is possible, I'd just like to have some small 'text' of what best to say in order to accomplish that goal. PM me if necessary.
TIA
Keyword: MAYISVANITYMONTH
lol. think of all we could accomplish if we were all on the same page!
Below is a sample of what I e-mailed them last week. I hope this helps.
Dear Congressman XXXX,
I am not one of your constituents (I wish I were), but I feel that I have to pass this idea on to you concerning the upcoming Amnesty for Illegal Aliens bill working its way thru the Senate, that will wind up in a conference committee with the House. Please share this idea with the rest of your fellow Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus members.
I am writing you because I do not trust Speaker Hastert one bit on doing the right thing when it comes to immigration reform and the Amnesty issue in particular. There have been some reports that Speaker Hastert might try to use his immense power to get an Amnesty Bill passed. I hope those reports are wrong and Hastert will not ram any Amnesty Bills thru the House. I believe that the House Majority Leader, Rep. Boehner, and most of the rest of the GOP House leadership, are with the American People and will do nothing to get Amnesty Legislation approved. I cannot say the same about the most powerful figure in the House, Speaker Hastert.
I fear that Hastert will pack the upcoming conference committee with those Republicans and Democrats who favor the Senate approach to immigration reform, open borders and Amnesty. Further, I feel he may attempt some kind of shenanigans if an Amnesty Bill ever makes it out of any conference committee onto the floor of the House for a vote.
Remember what Hastert pulled when the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan came up for a vote. Everyone went to bed on a Friday night thinking it was defeated (they already had enough votes logged to defeat the bill that night), only to find out Saturday morning that it passed because Hastert extended the voting time well past normal house voting cut-off time rules. This allowed President Bush to badger or politically blackmail enough "on the fence" GOP congressman to switch their votes from "nea" to "yea" to pass that bill. Hastert will likely pull the same thing if an Amnesty heavy bill makes it to the floor.
There is one way that this can be stopped. You and the other 90 + members of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus (CIRC) still have a very powerful ace up your sleeve, if you all are willing to use it.
What you all have to do is first go up to Hastert and warn him that if he packs the House side of the Conference Committee with those who favor amnesty and/or pulls any shenanigans to make it easier to get the Amnesty Bill passed, then you all will do the following:
1. Immediately announce that you all are publicly withdrawing your voting support for Speaker Hastert, probably by having to temporarily leaving the Republican Caucus. That would mean that Speaker Hastert would no longer have the majority of votes in the House to remain speaker.
2. This would then force Hastert out as Speaker immediately, since he no longer has the majority of the House backing him as Speaker.
3. There would then be two possibilities of this:
a. This would mean that if the GOP wants the next Speaker to be from the GOP for the rest of this Congress, then they had better pick someone who the CIRC approves of. The CIRC can really show some leverage here, either you all will cast your votes for someone who agrees with you on immigration or if you do not support whom the rest of the GOP puts up as Hastert’s replacement, they you can:
b. The CIRC membership does not cast a vote for Speaker, sits out the election for speaker and Pelosi picks up the speaker ship by default (YIKES). I doubt the Democrats would vote to retain Hastert or any other Republican as speaker.
The CIRC potentially holds an awful lot of leverage and power here, if you are willing to exercise it.
I know this is a stretch, even a "nuclear option", but it can happen and should happen (option a. above, hopefully), if Hastert intends on selling the American People out. He deserves to be fired IMMEDIATELY by his House colleagues. We can't trust the Senate and President Bush on doing the right thing when it comes to immigration or Amnesty for illegal aliens. It looks like we may not be able to trust Speaker Hastert to do the right thing, either. All we can hope or pray for is the GOP led House holding the line and defeating any Amnesty legislation that makes it to the House.
May God Bless You and All that you do!
Respectfully,
AmericaOne
I agree.
Thank you so much! If you don't mind I will use something VERY similar. You've been most helpful!
Just remember that Hastert and Frist were both selected by the Democrats.
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