Boehner defends retribution - says no final decision has been made

The Hill ^ | January 7, 2015 | Scott Wong

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A day after winning his third term as Speaker, John Boehner (R-Ohio) said his conference had begun a "family conversation" about how to respond to the 25 conservatives who revolted and voted against him on the floor.

Boehner confirmed that the Rules Committee agreed hours after the Tuesday vote to boot two of the defectors off the committee: Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who challenged Boehner for Speaker, and Rep. Richard Nugent (R-Fla.), who voted for his fellow Florida Republican.

But the Speaker said no final decisions had been made, suggesting Webster and Nugent could rejoin the committee, even as some rank-and-file members complained bitterly about leadership’s retribution in a closed-door GOP conference meeting on Wednesday.

“We had a situation yesterday where we had to constitute the Rules Committee because of some of the activities on the floor. Two of our members weren't put back on the committee immediately,” Boehner told reporters.

“We're going to have a family conversation … about bringing our team together,” he continued. “And I expect those conversations for the next couple of days will continue and we'll come to a decision about how we go forward.”

[haircutter]

John Boehner better wake the HELL up and know that the members have a right to speak as they wish..his threatening members who don't walk in his foot steps needs to STOP RIGHT NOW...

He is acting very THIN SKINNED, JUST AS HUSSEIN OBAMA DOES.. and I'm one Republican who has enough of it..

This morning I sent a message off to the GOP, if they can't line him up to be FAIR AND BALANCED, I will no longer consider my family Republican any longer, I'm ready for a new party..The two Parties in charge now have been in Power too damn long and it is time for new blood...

John Boehner’s actions yesterday to the members who voted against him left me totally discussed. I was ashamed of him...

Wake up OHIO voters and get new leaders. in 2016 send John a REAL MESSAGE.

[nitzy]

This existing system where everyone knows how everyone else voted is anti-Democratic as we can now plainly see

I just watched a very interesting video podcast in which the commentator describe how until the 70's, preliminary votes (I think committee votes) were taken in secret.

In this way, special interests couldn't be sure if their pet project was introduced, discussed, fought for, etc.....and by who. Also, the parties couldn't be sure who voted as they were instructed to in the committees.

People will be motivated by three things when voting:

1.) Incentive
2.) Fear
3.) Conscience

Secret ballots take away the incentive motivation and the fear motivation by preventing the special interests and political party bosses from every truly knowing how someone voted. The only motivation left is the conscience motivation and if all members of congress used that motivation to decide important votes, we would be much better off. In fact, I think a strong argument could be made that ALL congressional votes should be secret.

[nitzy]

He has plenty of time on his hands. He cleared his calendar by letting the Democrats write this year’s budget and passing it last December.

[DiogenesLamp]

The only motivation left is the conscience motivation and if all members of congress used that motivation to decide important votes, we would be much better off. In fact, I think a strong argument could be made that ALL congressional votes should be secret.

This is what I'm thinking, but it does cause another sort of problem. How can the people back home know if their guy is representing them if they are unable to find out how he voted on specific issues?

It's a conundrum. But certainly the election of speaker ought to be secret.

[The Cajun]

Start a conservative caucus and cause as much mischief and hell raising to promote conservatism as possible. Inflict as much pain on both parties and show their stupidity at every turn.

Great idea, keep at it every chance they get.
Get all the face time they can get on conservative media.

What do they have to lose now, fight the bastard Uniparty and Boehner!

[nitzy]

How can the people back home know if their guy is representing them if they are unable to find out how he voted on specific issues?

There would be no way to know for sure.

However, that would only be an issue IF our congressmen were currently representing us.

Would you rather your congressman answer only to his conscience and HOPE that he represents your interests or answer to others and KNOW for certain that he does not represent you?

Think of it this way...If he tells his constituents he is pro-life, anti-federal power, anti-illegal immigration or some other position, what would be a reason for betraying them when it was time to vote? Currently they say all of these things yet they vote to fund Obamacare, expand federal power, fund Obama's amnesty, etc.... We all know why they say one thing and do another. Why not get rid of those motivations?

[timestax]

Boehner sure had me fooled. Not anymore! He's just another lying, career politician who is in it for power and $$$$ and wants to be loved by Demoncraps. Boehner says to us Conservatives =F$%&(##)YOU.

[odawg]

Days after the voters handed the Republicans a landslide victory, Boehner showed how much loyalty he had for his base. His attitude was drop dead. However, today he showed that he understands loyalty, and he demands loyalty for HIMSELF. And, his penalty for what he considers disloyalty is removal from a position.

[Jabba the Nutt]

Little Johnny Boehner, the House of Representatives doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the American People. Representatives voting for a Speaker are doing their Constitutional duty. And dealing out "retribution" for representatives following the Constitution is TYRANNICAL.

Little Johnny and Mitch "Yertle the Turtle" McConnell are poster boys for Beta Males R Us. You don't have to fear strong men (or women) with strong, forceful personalities, because they face you and combat or support you straight up. Little Johnny and Mitch are weak and they're the type of person you have to fear. They'll stab you in the back, they'll talk cr*p about you to others in their little cliques and they'll undermine you for petty reasons.

Johnny and Yertle are weak, but they are personally most dangerous to the people they work with, ie other Republicans in Congress, like the people Johnny is extracting retribution from. That 216 Republicans voted for Little Johnny tells me that they are just as weak as the Cryer is. This leads me to predict, they will accomplish exactly nothing worth the name.

You have to check out Glenn Beck's conversations with Rep. Chris Stewart, who voted for Little Johnny and claims that they'll pass 12 major pieces of the legislation in the next 12 weeks and later they'll repeal ObamaCare and defund Obama/Boehner's illegal amnesty and build castles in the sky. Stewart is supposed to be one of the good one's elected from Utah.

[Eva]

Boehner and company are throwing softball legislation to Democrats, legislation that the clock has run out on, and in the case of the health care rule for full time legislation, the fix is so late that it would only make things worse for workers who have already lost their full time jobs. The pipeline is no longer needed, nor desired at this time, either

The Republicans are making themselves look like the bad news bears, except in tis case, the losing is intentional.

[Monorprise]

““That was the time to fight,” he said of the November vote. “But not a single person ran against Boehner. Not one. If they had, we could’ve had a secret ballot to find out what the true level of opposition to John Boehner was.””

Somehow I don’t think any such vote ever took place in November. Opposition to John has existed for many years nobody would vote against him 2 years ago and for him in the supposed Secrete ballot.

[DiogenesLamp]

Think of it this way...If he tells his constituents he is pro-life, anti-federal power, anti-illegal immigration or some other position, what would be a reason for betraying them when it was time to vote? Currently they say all of these things yet they vote to fund Obamacare, expand federal power, fund Obama's amnesty, etc.... We all know why they say one thing and do another. Why not get rid of those motivations?

The thought occurs to me that Washington DC, being an evil cesspool, will work out a way to ascertain the manner in which Representatives are voting, regardless of what we do. We might be the only people who end up not knowing how they voted.

[nitzy]

That is a good point. Although, I would think there would be full-proof ways to administer the vote to prevent such a thing. It is more a logistical question rather than a moral, ethical or philosophical one.

There are smarter people than me who devise these types of systems but I am thinking one option would be like a raffle ticket system. In this system representatives would randomly pick from a box filled with 435 “raffle tickets”. Each ticket has two parts: a “YES” with a long random number and a “NO” with the same random number. When it is time to vote you rip either the “YES” or the “NO” off your ticket and stick your choice in a box. When everyone present has voted, the votes are read in this manner, “387344923847941987619874 votes AYE, 45167898723465138917098377 votes NAY, etc...” Each Rep would know if their vote was counted wrong. Nobody would know how anybody else voted.

They key to this would be to anonymously collect the leftover tickets at the end of the voteand make it a felony for a Rep to take it off the floor, take a picture of it, make a copy of it, etc.... If they were permitted to do so, they would in effect have a receipt of their vote to show party bosses or campaign donors.