Posted on 09/20/2013 7:14:17 PM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
On the surface, the House GOP was in pep-rally mode as they headed into one of their most serious conflicts with President Obama since Republicans took the House in 2010.
Lawmakers have been bragging about the unity behind closed doors since Speaker John Boehner embraced the strategy of trying to defund Obamacare through the government-funding bill. And at a rally after the vote, dozens of lawmakers cheered lustily as Majority Leader Eric Cantor delivered a remarkably political speech that specifically targeted a series of vulnerable Senate Democrats up for reelection.
Underneath the surface, the same fault lines are still there and will inevitably come back to the fore.
Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania asked a pointed question to colleagues at the closed-door GOP conference meeting Friday morning. Sure, he said, we’re treating Speaker John Boehner like it’s Palm Sunday — laying down palm fronds and carrying him into Jerusalem.
“But will be be crucifying him a week from now?” Kelly asked.
For at least a few days, the fight will be in the Senate, where Senator Ted Cruz is starting to rally colleagues to filibuster the House bill for fear that Reid will strip its provision defunding Obamacare from it.
“Any Republican who votes for cloture is voting to fund Obamacare,” Matt Hoskins, the executive director for the Senate Conservatives Fund, said in a press release.
Yesterday, several Republicans — Bob Corker, John Cornyn, and Richard Burr — said they would vote to invoke cloture, given that when the vote occurs, it is likely to be on an intact House bill that includes the defunding provision.
Assuming Reid successfully detaches the Obamacare provision from the CR and sends it back to the House, Boehner and Cantor will face several difficult decisions.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
I would shut it down and let it rot. But too many pubbies won’t. The pubbies have their fair share of progressives in the party. Mostly in leadership positions. We will see. I hope I am wrong.
Hope he is primaried out. That would send a shock wave through the progressive pubbie leadership.
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