REVOLT: County GOP Votes “No Confidence” In Boehner-McConnell

The failure of congressional Republicans to take action to stop President Obama’s arguably unconstitutional and illegitimate executive actions, on immigration in particular, has created a growing unrest among those who put John Boehner in charge of the House and Mitch McConnell the Senate.

While there have been failed revolts in the House against Boehner’s leadership, by and large the anger has been kept out of the official GOP organizational structure.

In what may be the first such action since the so-called “Cromnibus” and DHS funding passed, on Thursday night, March 12, 2015,the Tompkins County (NY) Republican Party Executive Committee voted “No Confidence” in the Congressional leadership.

Tompkins County is in the Southern Tier of upstate NY, a mostly rural county that includes the liberal City of Ithaca. It is in the NY-23 District that overwhelmingly voted for Republican incumbent Tom Reed in the 2014 election.

“The recent Cromnibus vote and the vote on DHS funding/immigration were the straws that led to the resolution calling for new leadership, but they are just the culmination of many acts not vigorously opposed by Boehner and McConnell: immigration; ISIS, negotiations with Iran, FCC and EPA power grabs; presidential executive orders; unconstitutional recess appointments; political use of IRS; lack of transparency; stonewalling congressional investigations; selective enforcement of federal laws; and corruption, among others. Party committees do not normally take such actions but many party members are so upset with Boehner and McConnell’s passivity that unusual action was required. Now, perhaps, other Republican committees will also speak out.”

one more excerpt:

Executive Committee member Ed Weissman of Ithaca provided the following statement:

While I cannot speak for anyone but myself, my impression from the discussion that took place is that since their is no leadership from the top we must start from the bottom. I hope this will encourage other Republican committees around the region, the state and the nation to make their voices heard and to push for a change in attitudes and actions in Washington. The Republican leadership in Congress has shown that they are not willing to fulfill the pledges they repeatedly have made to push back hard using all the tools in their arsenal against President Obama’s unconstitutional power grabs and his administration’s ruinous policies. The leadership seem to fight most rigorously against the true conservatives in Congress, the ones who stand by their principles and uphold the oaths they took to defend the Constitution.

Prior to the reelection of the Spineless Wunder Boner as House Speaker, I wrote to my congresscritter imploring him to vote for a speaker with character and constitutional conservative integrity, Judge Louie Gohmert.

January 3 came and went and I saw that the rep I wrote had gone along with the establishment and reelected the tearful cheeto.

Weeks passed and eventually an email with a "do not reply to" address came in that was a long response message... I didn't bother reading it because I knew what it would say. Well, eventually I did read it... and it was upsetting...

What I noted, however, on this Homeland Security funding vote, my guy voted "correctly"... and went directly against the spew he wrote to me previously about consensus voting to move forward the Party agenda.

I wonder if he has come around? I doubt it. All I can say is I will sooner write in my own name than vote for Glenn "G.T." Thompson when he is running for reelection in Pennsylvania's 5th District.

Here is a cut/paste of that email I got back on February 4^th:

Dear Rodamala:
Thank you for contacting me and taking the time to express your opposition to Rep. John Boehner for Speaker of the House of Representatives. Your opinion is important to me and I appreciate the opportunity to respond with my thoughts on the matter.
Prior to commencement of the 114th Congress, just days after the November mid-term elections, Republican members of the House of Representatives met to nominate our leadership team. During this conference, not a single member of the House Republican Conference voiced opposition to the nomination of Rep. John Boehner to serve another term as Speaker. Similarly, there was not a dissenting vote during the secret ballot process. The nomination process for Speaker Boehner was unanimous.
On January 6, 2015, the House elected Rep. John Boehner as Speaker over Rep. Nancy Pelosi by a vote of 216 to 164, despite dissenting votes from 25 members of the Republican party. While I hold the Republican candidates who challenged Speaker Boehner in high regards as friends and colleagues, the fact is that none were suitable or prepared to hold the position. I do not believe these challenges were sincere efforts, with the alternative candidates announcing their intentions mere days before to Television audiences. One of the most important components of success is appropriate planning. As a result, I could not in good-faith cast my vote on behalf of any member who did not have the foresight to speak to their colleagues about his or her decision to run for Speaker. As a result, Rep. Louie Gohmert received just three votes in total, one being his very own.
Many of the challenges in the legislative process over the past several years were not caused by House Leadership, but can directly be attributed to lack of action from a Democrat majority in the Senate. I can attest that as a life-long conservative, I have worked as your representative to advance conservative principles in order to better serve the people of the Commonwealth and our great nation. The Constitution established a system of checks and balances that were very intentional. To appropriately navigate this process and to advance our shared conservative ideals, we as Republicans must stick together and not let a few members concerned with self-promotion divide our ranks.
I have always been a firm believer that trust is earned. While I am not asking you to take my word for it, I am respectfully requesting that you look at some of the accomplishments in the first 13 legislative days of the new Congress, including: House approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline; Passage of the Hire More Heroes Act to employ more veterans without Obamacare burdens; Restoring the 40-hour workweek and protecting the paychecks of millions of hard-working Americans; Prohibiting taxpayer funding for abortions; Protecting Volunteer Fire Departments from Obamacare mandates; Expediting the licensing of Liquefied Natural Gas exports to create jobs and national security; Streamlining the construction of natural gas pipelines so we can continue to utilize American-produced energy and lower energy costs for families; Blocking the President's unlawful amnesty program; Regulatory reforms that allow more public input; and twelve separate bills to combat human trafficking that will protect the most vulnerable, especially children.
Please be assured that while I believe many of these legislative initiatives to be a good start, there remains much work to be done. As your elected member of the House of Representatives, this is a task that I do not take lightly and I will remain committed to further earning your trust over the remainder of the 114th Congress.
I would like to once again thank you for contacting me with your concerns. For more information on my policies and happenings around the 5th District, please visit my website at www.thompson.house.gov. There you can sign up to receive periodic updates via my e-newsletter, The Thompson Times.
Sincerely,
Glenn Thompson
Member of Congress

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.