McClintock also issued a statement yesterday. (see below) He makes a good point about what happened in California. He does hint at the possibility of removing the speaker in a future coup and lets hope they have the votes to do it. At some point real conservatives in the House need to ride into the fray at the exact moment the GOPe are bartering with the other side for more lands and title for themselves (remember the scene from Braveheart?) and get the battle started.
Statement by Congressman Tom McClintock
On the Election of the House Speaker
January 6, 2014
I am disappointed in Mr. Boehner’s leadership of the House and have expressed my concerns on many occasions. But shifting this decision from the House Republican Conference to the House Floor opens a Pandora’s Box.
The election of the House Speaker is a decision that is made by the House majority caucus. That decision is then enacted through a formal vote on the House floor by the unanimous action of that majority.
The Republican majority voted at its November meeting to re-elect John Boehner as Speaker after no member stepped forward to challenge him. Some have suggested now shifting that decision from the House Republican Conference to the House floor, where 29 Republicans can combine with Democrats to thwart it.
Conservatives should beware. On its worst day, the collective judgment of the Republican majority is much more conservative than that of the overall House membership. Shattering Republican unity in the election of Speaker is not likely to end with a more conservative alternative, but rather with a coalition of the most liberal House Republicans and House Democrats.
This happened in the California Assembly in 1994. Dissident Republicans broke with the Republican majority on the vote for Speaker, enlisting the votes of minority Democrats in exchange for a wholesale transfer of power. Though voters had elected a Republican majority, this coalition effectively gave Democrats control of the Assembly.
The proper place to contest a Republican speaker is in the House Republican Conference. At any meeting, a member may put a no-confidence motion to the conference and, if adopted, set the stage for a House vote to vacate the office and elect a successor. However, this requires every member of the Conference to respect the collective decision – a long-enduring precedent that would be destroyed by the proposed strategy. I cannot support it.
One other thing...
If all so called conservatives had the fiscal voting record of McClintock (and that is what we need to be fighting for) then Boehner would not even be an issue.
Rep. McClintock Earns the Highest Score in the House from the National Taxpayers Union
By ADMIN on September 18, 2014
For the second year in a row, Rep. Tom McClintock received the highest score in the House of Representatives from the National Taxpayers Union, for his votes in the 113th Congress. NTU also named Rep. McClintock a “Taxpayers’ Friend.”
NTU’s annual Rating sets the standard for fiscal scorecards by not simplistically focusing on only a handful of equally weighted “key votes”, but on every roll call vote affecting fiscal policy – appropriation, authorization, and tax bills; budget target resolutions; amendments; and certain regulatory or procedural votes that could affect overburdened taxpayers.
The National Taxpayers Union is the largest and oldest taxpayers union in the nation with over 362,000 members nationwide.
Sorry, but folks are living in fantasy land if they think their is going to be a coup against Boehnor in the next few years.
Boehnor and the votes for him are the GOP. This is what you get.
Did the newly elected Freshmen get an opportunity to attend that meeting? Were the vanquished or retiring current representatives forbidden from attending that meeting? If the answer to either question is NO, how can it be said that there was an opportunity hear from the majority caucus?