How much theater in the Boehner vote. How much active disgruntlement. Think of the strategic value having a pack of angry GOP right on his tail when now making his GOP case to Barry and the Dems? According to a poll conducted by Pat Caddell and published on Monday, of 600 individuals who voted Republican in the 2014 mid-term election: a. Only 16% wanted to see John Boehner elected as the next Speaker. 60% of those voters wanted to see Boehner replaced as Speaker. b. 43% believe Boehner favors special interests versus 44% who believe Boehner has the voters interest at heart. c. At least a third of these individuals are hanging by a thread in their association with the Republican party and are ready to bolt. Prior to the vote, people were melting the phone lines to Congress urging members to not re-elect John Boehner as Speaker. In light of how John Boehner has acted since he became Speaker, why would anyone expect anything different from what we have witnessed in the past. The passage of the Cromnibus bill exemplifies what people are upset about? Legislation being negotiated in secret, chock a block filled with special deals, ignoring the wishes of the electorate and then put before the House at the last minute, without consulting members, while relying on Obama and the Democrats to obtain the necessary votes for passage. The key test will come very quickly when funding runs out for DHS. The White House is already posturing - saying that if Congress does not fund the Presidents amnesty agenda, (which two lower Courts have ruled is unconstitutional) - the President will allow DHS to shut down. If the Speaker buckles and negotiates some sort of compromise with the President, which allows the President to continue with his executive amnesty agenda, IMO that will be it for the Republican party - that will be the social flash point - which leads to the collapse of the existing coalition and ultimately a new party will emerge from the rubble of the old. Just my two cents worth. P.S. There are already public reports of the House leadership meting out retribution to the members who voted No. If the Speaker was seeking to use this upset to his advantage, that would not be the approach to take. One-third GOP Ready to Bolt to 3rd Party. Good thing then there are a pack of angry Repubs on Boehners tail. We dont need a repeat of the post-Gingrich GOP. No way. I have been down too many 3rd party trips myself to know they become nothing but spoilers, that only insure what you dont want is what you end up getting. I think the Grand Old Party can be grand again - just needs that angry pack to keep nipping at Boehners heels. And keeping their dignity with the voters at the same time. I also dont put a lot of stock in what the public thinks about these internal party leadership votes. We vote for our individual reps, but not sure we the people should also have too much of a say about their allocation of administrative duties amongst themselves, once elected. Different abilities needed for these party leadership posts instead of ideological issues litmus test. I worry more when the votes are taken, than how we get to the votes. But I am also not naive about the power of the administrative gate-keeper to push or quash anything and everything too. I am not giving up yet, nor find bolting the party timely or strategic. Taking over the party when there are critical mass numbers is the way to do this, which apparently there are yet not. For a new political party to be successful there needs to be a societal fissure of such magnitude that the old political party ultimately collapses from within due to all of the inherent contradictions. Otherwise, the effort to establish a new political party fails. Given the old expression, a week is a lifetime in politics, only time will tell as to how events unfold. If any party deserves to disassemble my money is on the Democrat Party. You have the public employee unions on one hand and the progressive ideologues on the other. They are lousy bed mates with no common purpose. Among conservatives I think there is a far wider tent for smaller government and fiscal common sense. Social issues divide conservatives, but those are not really the things of government and have only become so because of so much Democrat nanny-statism and intrusions into individual lives and choices. Republicans should not be fighting over what goes on in private bedrooms, but instead what goes on that is paid for with public tax dollars.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 07:34:19 +0000