John Boehner Allies Fret Coup Attempt

Politico ^ | Saturday, February 28, 2015 | John Bresnahan; Anna Palmer and Lauren French

[kristinn]

Close allies of Speaker John Boehner are worried that his conservative rivals could move to oust him as soon as next week.

Removing a sitting speaker is exceedingly difficult, and such an effort would almost certainly fall short. Yet growing speculation about the possibility of it – coming after Friday’s embarrassing defeat at the hands of conservatives and House Democrats on the homeland security battle — shows how vulnerable the speaker has become.

Five years into the job, he’s a leader consistently buffeted by forces beyond his control. The legislative calendar guarantees it won’t get any easier: in the coming weeks and months there will be battles over the debt ceiling, budget, taxes, and spending cuts. The question is how many more of these episodes Boehner can withstand.

Frustration with the Ohio Republican is mounting after dozens of hardliners voted Friday against his three-week funding package for the Department of Homeland Security. Hours of frantic leadership meeting ensued. After some backroom maneuvering with Democrats, Boehner was able to push through a one-week bill to keep DHS open.

President Barack Obama signed the bill into law just 10 minutes before a shutdown of the massive federal agency.

The stinging rebuke of Boehner on the House floor infuriated his supporters, who accused opponents of handing Democrats a huge PR victory.

Yet is also left even Boehner backers wondering how viable he remains. They admit these repeated confrontations, in which Boehner can’t muster 218 Republican votes for his proposals and has to turn to Democrats for help, leave him looking weak and ineffective — and thus vulnerable to a conservative challenge.

[mrsmith]

I wouldn’t call it a “conversion”, he just has to recognize that conservatives won’t roll over for him like they always have before. And adapt to that fact.

As far as what he can do now: one compromise would be to leave out the DACA ban in the bill but retain the ban against his latest amnesty.
Not what I would wish but better than what he seems set upon now. A compromise.

Just saw this on how Boehner can give Obama his way:
http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/house-rule-boehner-dhs-appropriations-shutdown/?dcz=

” ...any House lawmaker, arguing that a conference scenario is moot and won’t be resolved before the clock runs out on the current extension of DHS funding, could take to the floor and move that the House recedes from its previous position and concurs in the Senate amendment.
Because such a motion is “privileged” that would then trigger a vote on sending the Senate-amended full year Homeland Security appropriations bill to Obama’s desk without any of those riders designed to block his executive actions on immigration.”

Don’t think he’d do something so blatant and stupid but this is Boehner.