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The date was Oct. 14, 2013, two weeks into a government shutdown engineered by Republicans in the House of Representatives who were trying once again to kill Obamacare. Scheduled for the next day was a vote backed by House Speaker John Boehner and his lieutenants that would have reopened the government and avoided the likely disaster of the U.S. government defaulting on its debt. The setting was a low-budget eatery on Capitol Hill called the “Tortilla Coast,” not known for its ambiance, as The Post’s Amy Argetsinger described it, but for its “utter lack of ambiance, its “windows bedecked with...

All you need to know about the failed speakership of John Boehner was exposed to the entire world by Boehner himself as he announced his resignation from Congress. The what, the how, and the why of his failures were succinctly explained when he said, “The first job of any Speaker is to protect this institution that we all love.” Do what? Well, no wonder he was a disaster as speaker. He had no clue what the job description was. In just 15 words, everything about his disastrous reign was brought into laser-sharp focus. Never has someone so orange said so...

September 16, 2015 Congressman Jim Jordan Chairman, House Freedom Caucus 1524 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 HAND DELIVERED Dear Jim: When the House Freedom Caucus formed in January, I fervently hoped that it would provide responsible and effective leadership to advance conservative principles in the House of Representatives. I know that every member of the HFC sincerely supports these principles, but as I have expressed on many occasions during our meetings, I believe the tactics the HFC has employed have repeatedly undermined the House’s ability to advance them. Allow me to review a few examples. On February 27th,...

John Boehner is leaving as speaker because he can't control the tea party. Should the whole GOP give in? It has happened before. The Republican Party is barreling head-first toward a worst-case scenario – or is that a best-case scenario? The tea party wing of the party has essentially toppled House Speaker John Boehner. His replacement will almost certainly need the tea party's stamp of approval. Meanwhile, the Republican presidential campaign continues to confound the establishment. Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz together have more support than all other Republican candidates combined, according to polls....

House Speaker John Boehner said on CBS’s "Face the Nation" this morning that there will be no government shutdown—thus signaling that the House of Representatives he will lead until the end of next month will not send the Senate a continuing resolution that Democrats there would filibuster because it prohibits funding of Planned Parenthood or that President Barack Obama would veto for the same reason. In response to a follow-up question from host John Dickerson, Boehner said he was "sure" the funding bill he will put through the Republican-majority House will need Democratic votes to pass. The law currently funding...

“McConnell needs to resign!!” Louisiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere wrote... Villere isn’t just any Republican. He’s the longest-serving state GOP chairman in the nation...the vice chairman of the RNC... also serves on the RNC’s executive committee... Aides for McConnell...did not return repeated calls and emails seeking comment. {Priebus} was unavailable Sunday. {Boehner resigned] and ...an ideological irony there is that his probable replacement, Kevin McCarthy...is closer politically to Mr. Boehner than to the more ideologically passionate members ... The same may hold true for Mr. McConnell... Villere said...“Honestly, I haven really thought of a replacement,” Villere did say what {offends...

Outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner lashed out at the House’s “most conservative members” during a Sunday interview on ABC’s “Face the Nation.”CBS host John Dickerson began the interview by asking Boehner about the threatened government shutdown: “Four days, the government runs out of money. Is there going to be a shutdown?” Boehner responded, “no,” that he expected the Senate to pass a continuing resolution and that with the help of Democrats in the House, he expected the House to vote to keep the government open. Moving to the issue of Boehner’s upcoming retirement, Dickerson asked Boehner about conversations...

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URBANDALE, Iowa —Sen. Ted Cruz was Iowa on Saturday for the opening of his campaign office in Urbandale, making him the seventh Republican to set up shop in Iowa. Cruz and staffers opened their office just six months after the Republican first announced his candidacy. This opening means more than half of the 2016 presidential contenders are spending campaign cash on local rent space. Nearly 100 people including supporters and campaign staffers attended the opening. "I think it shows a commitment to the community to the state and to his supporters particularly, so he is here for the long term,”...

* Boehner calls some conservatives "unrealistic" * Plans to pass government funding bill with Democratic support * Says he could have survived a vote to oust himHouse Speaker John Boehner isn’t going out quietly. The outgoing and embattled speaker had choice words Sunday for his foes inside and outside of Congress and signaled that he intends to be very much in charge until he relinquishes the speaker’s gavel under pressure at the end of October. Boehner took aim at Republican rebels in the House of Representatives and unnamed conservative and tea party groups that agitated for his departure. He blasted...

Outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner on Sunday didn’t deny that he was referring to Senator Ted Cruz when he warned of false prophets “out there spreading noise about how much [the government] can get done,” even pointing to comments he made at a fundraiser where he called the Senator a “jackass.” When questioned if Ted Cruz was a false prophet in an interview Sunday on “Face the Nation,” Boehner didn’t deny the suggestion, citing past comments he made at a fundraiser in August. “Are they unrealistic about what can be done in government?” CBS News host John Dickerson...

Outgoing House Speaker John A. Boehner, in his first one-on-one interview since announcing his resignation last week, compared conservative hard-liners in his party to biblical "false prophets" who promise more than they can deliver. Boehner announced Friday that he would step down Oct. 30 after nearly five years as speaker amid constant pressure from his party's right flank. Asked Sunday by host John Dickerson on a live broadcast of CBS's "Face the Nation" whether those hard-liners are "unrealistic about what can be done in government," Boehner exploded. [Snip] Boehner addressed the remaining five weeks of his speakership, in which he...

House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) announcement that he is resigning from Congress effective October 30th was followed by a torrent of tears in Washington. Leading the sob fest, of course, was Boehner himself who lamented that “the blood, sweat, and tears I’ve shed for this country have gone unappreciated for too long.” As if to contradict Boehner’s lament, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) praised “Boehner’s cooperative approach to getting things done,” and expressed the hope that “a similarly motivated and compliant successor can be found.” A glum Presidential Press Secretary Josh Earnest called the resignation “a serious setback for...

Movement Conservatives just claimed the head of House Speaker John Boehner. His political death was the price of preventing a catastrophic government shutdown after Movement Conservatives in Congress tied the very survival of the United States government to their determination to defund Planned Parenthood. Movement Conservatives are gunning for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell next. We should be very afraid. Boehner and McConnell are not wild-eyed lefties. They are on the very far right of the American political spectrum: fervently pro-business, antiabortion, opposed to social welfare legislation. But they are old-school politicians who still have faith in the idea of...

The abrupt resignation of House Speaker John Boehner shows that “the crazies have taken over the party,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Friday. “I think it signals the crazies have taken over the party, taken over to the party that you can remove a speaker of the House who’s second in line to be president, a constitutional officer in the middle of his term with no allegations of impropriety, a person who’s honest and doing his job. This has never happened before in our country,” King said in an interview on CNN. “He could have stayed on.” King praised Boehner,...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a persistent thorn in the side of Republican congressional leadership, basked in the news Friday that House Speaker John Boehner was resigning. As Cruz spoke at an annual meeting of social conservatives in Washington, the speaker was at the Capitol, making official what had surfaced earlier Friday: that he was stepping down at the end of next month amid GOP infighting on the Hill. By the time Cruz took the stage at the Family Research Council's Value Voters Summit, he barely had to mention the Ohio Republican's name before drawing loud applause. “You want to know...

I'm watching this unfold and womdering why in the wide, wide, world of sports should conservatives settle for some sort of meh speaker? Or someone like McCarthy who will probably be even worse than the blubbering cheetoh. Here are some quick points: -Dave Brat has a 100% CR rating. One of two reps in the house. -he's in about the safest district imaginable. -his district is less than a two hour drive from the beltway. -he's the consummate outsider. -Very high schadenfreude potential.

WASHINGTON (FOX Carolina) - U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R, SC) released a statement Friday on Rep. John Boehner’s announcement that he will resign as Speaker of the House of Representatives. “I appreciate John Boehner’s service to our nation and his time as Speaker of the House of Representatives. I’ve known him for twenty years and he has always tried to bring about change in the best interests of our nation and party. He is a solid conservative who understands the responsibility which comes from governing. I wish him well. He will always have my respect and admiration.”

Grassroots voters in 2014 apparently foiled a secret plan by House Speaker Rep. John Boehner to give his top job to the party’s House Majority Leader, Rep. Eric Cantor, who is a close ally of the GOP’s establishment wing. The plan suddenly collapsed last June after Cantor’s constituents in Virginia’s 7th district rejected him in favor of his primary challenger, economics professor Rep. Dave Brat. Brat won by blasting Cantor for mimicking Senator Sen. Marco Rubio’s effort to pass the mass-amnesty bill that would further raise high immigration levels. “The Speaker’s plan was to serve only through the end of...

Conservatives at the Values Voter Summit cheered Friday morning when they learned that House Speaker John Boehner was retiring. Friday afternoon, they cheered again when someone suggested the next establishment Republican to lose his job should be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "Here's what I say to in response to Speaker Boehner stepping down. Mitch McConnell, it is now your turn," Louisiana Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal said to raucous applause. After the news of Boehner's resignation, Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon told reporters he had texted his fellow conservative friend, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, with the simple message:...