Posted on 06/30/2010 8:30:18 AM PDT by Maelstorm
Well, it is official.
Eric Cantor and John Boehner — particularly Eric Cantor — have decided they don’t need or want conservatives and, more troubling, do not have any intention of trying to win at the polls by forcing Democrat hands on Obamacare.
Our leadership is behaving badly.
Last week and on Monday I mentioned Rep. Steve King’s effort to repeal Obamacare and start over. He’s filed a discharge petition. If he gets 218 signatures, Nancy Pelosi must hold a vote.
At the time, I was hearing that Eric Cantor was desperate to undermine Steve King’s efforts and, sure enough, he’s trying. Worse, he has John Boehner helping him.
Let me explain.
King’s legislative effort would repeal Obamacare and start over. In effect, all those Democrats who have been saving they too want to start over get a “put up or shut up” moment by signing the King discharge petition.
Today, Eric Cantor and John Boehner are announcing that they’ll sign King’s discharge petition, but they’re also going to go with one by Congressman Wally Herger that would repeal Obamacare and replace it with a Republican alternative.
Notice that Cantor and Boehner were absolutely silent on Rep. King’s efforts until they had Wally Herger’s discharge petition ready to go. Why? Because they want to bully Republican House members into signing the Herger petition and undercut the repeal effort with a “replace and replace with lame legislation” effort. In effect, this undercuts a unified repeal effort and muddies the waters.
This is a direct confrontation by the House GOP leadership with conservatives and with Heritage Action for America, the Heritage Foundation’s spin off 501(c)(4) group.
It is also stupid for a number of reasons:
* If the GOP unites behind the Heritage effort on the King “Repeal Obamacare” bill, we actually have a chance of winning. 60% of Americans want this to happen, and numerous Democrats are gettable in this fight. The Herger “Repeal and Replace” bill has zero chance of passing, it will drive a number of GOP members away who don’t agree with this particular replacement bill and give Democrats an easy excuse to not sign onto the repeal movement. * The Republican alternative is a milquetoast alternative. * The Republicans are buying into the slacker mandate — letting adults stay on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26 years old. * The Republicans spent months calling on the Democrats to work with the GOP to draft Obamacare. The Cantor-Boehner strategy means the GOP is now pushing a proposal to the floor of the House without input from the left or even from conservatives.
Tea Party activists and others should pay attention here: Eric Cantor and John Boehner are implementing a strategy that makes it look like they are on your side, but are in fact stabbing you in the back.
Cantor and Boehner are spinning this as a good thing. But it is not. It muddies the water and gives Democrats an escape from being forced to take action.
Any Republican who signs on to the Herger discharge petition should be driven from office for betraying the “repeal” cause. This does nothing but provide cover to people who don’t really want to repeal Obamacare, just nibble at the edges.
And should the GOP take back Congress in November, we should remember this betrayal and the lies that go with it.
No, it defies logic that anyone believes that even conservatives riding in on their white horses will save us.
It is too late.
The monstosity in DC is rolling down the hill picking up and destroying everything in its path...it has a mind of its own now.
No one can stop it...except maybe us...if we have the will, which we do not.
It is hard to come to any other conclusion, but just like Charlie Brown, we keep believing, this time she will really let us kick the football.
I will not live long enough to see the complete destruction of our Republic, at least I hope not, but I fear God will not judge well our stewardship of the greatest country the world has ever known.
Some of us are running on a platform to repeal the healthcare bill, to gut the federal government, reduce all budgets and completely restructure the tax system. I feel that there are some like this running in every state and we can win the day, but we are not getting any help form the GOP.
The destruction will and is happening at an ever quickening pace, so unless you are almost dead you my FRiend will see the end as it is upon us as I type.
The left says the reason the right wants it’s second amendment rights is to attack the left! I guess they aren’t as dumb as we think.
“A people unwilling to use extreme violent force to preserve or obtain their liberty deserves the tyrants that rule them.” stockpirate
The Republican Establishment up and down the East Coast is so eager to demonstrate their tribe isn’t backward that they need a candidate with certified brains, breeding or cultural refinement to get behind. Unfortunately, modern certifications thereof require a candidate to be what’s commonly termed a ‘RINO’—which means they sow the seeds of their own destruction every time they go out planting in the political field. You’ve got them well pegged.
“Why is that when faced with the prospect of greatness Republican “leadership” aspire to mediocrity?”
Answer: They are bought and controlled by the same forces that control CommieCrates, pure and simple.
I don’t know about “anything” written by Erickson as I haven’t read enough of his work to know that, but this one definitely sets off my ACME Catalogue Bullshit Detector, and I want to caution everybody about that as I’ve had that old thing forever, and it’s damned accurate.
The Dems signed their own Death Warrant shoving that alleged Healthcare bill down our collective throats, so why prior to election do we think one means of destroying our chances of their demise a few months from now is preferable to another?
Curious.
You are exactly right. Even if the current house and senate vote to repeal the ObamaDeathCare how will they force Obamma to sign it into law? It seems to be a futile excercise at this point. When republicans take over the congress in November, the first order of business is to impeach the foreigner in the Whitehouse and then issue an arrest warrent for Pelosi and Reid. There is going to be one hell of a pay back coming.
“IMHO any republican that votes for Kagan should be voted out of office at the very next chance.”
You betcha!
As I understand it, if no Republican on the Judicary Committee votes in favor of her confirmation, Kagan is history. Is that so hard of a decision for any Republican, even the most left leaning moderate (RINO)? McConnel better get his troops in line. Kill this horrid woman’s nomination now!
Boehner and Cantor need to be relieved of their leadership positions. They are good followers and lapdogs, but are not leaders. We need someone like a Bachmann to be the republican leader in the House.
He is, but K Street doesn’t like the healthcare bill either.
Both Cantor and Boehner like to talk tough when meeting with their supporters, especially ones that might donate money. I met Boehner at a fundraiser event a few years ago. He talked tough at the time, but now we see that he is just another phony. I’m ok with him as a congressman, but not as the Republican leader in the House.
I do recall at least one instance )if not more) of him being a bit dramatic about something or other. I wish I could remember what it was though.
I wouldn't even start over. I would just repeal everything associated with it. We need a prosperous economy to even have a debate about it. No money = no reform, unless you want to just get rid of frivolous lawsuits (a good idea in any economy).
“Why people insist on remaining with the OP(formerly the GOP) party, that has been determined to eschew Conservative principles for decades defies logic.”
Because they remember a time when Conservatives stood their ground and fought for their principles within the party structure, and are staying in order to make that true once more.
Unfortunately there are “conservatives” that have cut in run, mostly to 3rd party politics, where they have effectively marginalized themselves, and, in effect all real Conservatives.
Thanks for illustrating the salient fact of the “principaled” cowardice of 3rd party “conservatives” Man50D.
It’s no wonder that Rino’s rule the roost, the faux “conservatives” have fled the party in terror of the hardships of a real political bruhaha, or in face of some current, but temporary, setback. Stalwart Reagan Conservatives have stood fast having “seen the elephant” before.
Wait for the taxes to kick in, and if the mood for repeal still isn’t strong after that, then I’ll accept the pessimisim.
i have long suspected that both leaders of the senate and congress in the gop were really rinos. They play the good game occasionally, but its ALL politics to them, thats why Obama is calling their bluff
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