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Making matters even more interesting was a statement that newly elected Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) had originally issued to the Washington Examiner. Love—who had not promised constituents ahead of time she’d oppose Boehner—had told the Examiner’s Ashe Schow that she believed a vote for a Republican alternative to Boehner to be a vote, in essence, for Pelosi.
“There were no qualified or notable campaigns for speaker within the Republican Party other than John Boehner,” Love said. “Casting a vote for a candidate who has not actively campaigned and does not have the support to be speaker is an indirect vote for Nancy Pelosi, and I will not vote for Nancy Pelosi.”
Love has been hammered by conservatives in the days since not only for voting for Boehner but also for the argument she made to an Examiner reporter who previously labeled the coup effort against Boehner as “farcical,” which essentially accused the 25 who stood up to Boehner of indirectly supporting Pelosi.
In a lengthy statement since provided to Breitbart News, Love admitted that her original comments to the Examiner were inaccurate and apologized.
On Tuesday, my vote for elect John Boehner as Speaker of the House was a vote for Republican Party unity, plain and simple. I don’t agree with everything Speaker Boehner has done or said, just as I have differences with many other colleagues. But I still have faith in our party and the American people who elected us to be in charge of both houses of Congress. Coming off a historic election that sent a strong message to Washington, I believe that now is the time to unify our party and our message around a positive reform agenda, not expose unnecessary division with symbolic votes that allow the Democrats and the media to divert the country’s attention away from our accomplishment. Republicans have substantive differences when it comes to policy and I look forward to having those debates. But I see greater benefit in using our first step to put our best foot forward.
I regret I misspoke when I said a vote against Boehner was an indirect vote for Nancy Pelosi. I understand now that is not the case. But I take serious issue with those who have hastily claimed I have ‘sold out’ or ‘broken my promises.’ On the contrary, my promise was to give a voice to the issues that are important to Utahns. And I have every intention of keeping that promise, and making them proud.
I will fight make this country more free, secure, and prosperous no matter who stands in the way – Republican or Democrat. I will spend every day in Congress defending hardworking taxpayers who want Washington to get out of their way. And I will work tooth and nail to make this government more efficient, effective, and accountable to the people. We can do this as a party, we can do this as a country, and I want to make sure we are all doing it together.
“using the canned response distributed by Boehner’s staff.”
I noticed how so many of the responses were so similar, that obviously there was something they were all using, and adding a little to personalize it. I got one of them from my Ohio rep, and he made sure to note he voted for “fellow Ohioan.”
Mia Love is off to a really rocky start. Talk about not ready.