Boehner Was Elected Speaker Despite Hannity's Brain-dead Rabble Rousing

John Boehner has been re-elected as Speaker of the US House of Representatives. He was elected to his third term as Speaker on the first ballot, despite the efforts of a group of populist-conservative House members, some having just been sworn in to their first term, to de-seat him. The group seems to gave been encouraged by an equally populist-conservative TV personality on Fox TV, Sean Hannity, who told Breitbart on Tuesday that he supports Trey Gowdy of South Carolina. "It’s time for new dynamic leadership in the House of Representatives," according to Hannity, who said : "Trey Gowdy is my choice for Speaker. He has the ability to articulate and implement the changes needed to get the country on the right path." Former prosecutor Gowdy was not a member of the anti-Boehner group, and my guess is that he found the use of his name distasteful. ~~~~~ A Caddell Associates' survey of 602 Americans who voted Republican in the midterm elections found that 60% of Republican voters want John Boehner replaced as Speaker. The poll also found that 64% called Boehner too "ineffective" in opposing Obama’s agenda. When asked if they wanted to replace Boehner, 34% said they would "definitely" support a new Speaker and 26% added that they "probably" would want someone else. The anti-Boehner group was apparently encouraged by the poll, because Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas joined Representative Ted Yoho of Florida to challenge House Speaker John Boehner for the office of Speaker. Gohmert made his announcement Sunday morning on the Fox and Friends TV program, citing the poll incorrectly if the poll as published is to be believed, by sayng that the poll showed that 60% of those who voted Republican in the midterm elections did so because they wanted a different Speaker, and 25% of them said they will not vote for the GOP in 2016 if there isn't a change. ~~~~~ The poll added to a debate on the right of the GOP over Boehner’s role as House Speaker. Prior to today's election of Boehner, as many as 22 Republicans were opposing him, with 15 announcing publicly their intention to vote against him. That was far short of the 29 needed to place his election in jeopardy by requiring a second ballot, and many lawmakers dismissed the challenge as a needless distraction at a moment when the party should be celebrating new majorities and showing voters it can lead. None of the rebels ever predicted they would succeed in toppling John Boehner. Instead, they said the current House leadership has not been conservative enough. Yoho said the initial goal of the Boehner challenge was to force the leadership contest past one ballot, so there could be a serious discussion about change. Yoho told CNN in an interview Monday morning : "This is the time for a new beginning. It's time for new leadership." Yoho said the Republican leadership has "strayed from its own principles of free market, limited government, constitutional conservatism." Those who voted against Boehner include Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Dave Brat (R-Va.) - a freshman who defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the GOP primary, Steve King (R-Iowa) - a hard-line opponent of immigration reform, and, of course, Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) - the Speaker candidate who is a friend of Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has called for Boehner's ouster. If elected, Gohmert said : "We’ll get back to appropriating and go through regular committee process, so everybody, every representative from both parties will have a chance to participate in the process and not have a dictator running things." (One might wonder how much chaos and stalemate would have resulted had Gohmert been elected Speaker.) Several new faces in the House pledged as candidates to vote against Boehner. Freshman Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) is the prefect example of how newly elected House members, several of whom voted against Boehner today, didn't understand how the House functions or just how hard it is to unseat a Speaker, especially when his party has an historically large majority. Palmer stated on the campaign trail that he wouldn't back Boehner for Speaker. However, Palmer later said he regretted that pledge “to a certain extent” because it might threaten his ability to secure preferred committee assignments. Still, Palmer said he told Boehner he would need to keep his word. Another freshman, Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), simply said as a candidate that he’d "stand up to Boehner'" without explaining much about why or how. Freshman Mark Walker (R-N.C.) indicated he wouldn't support Boehner during his GOP primary, but has hedged about it ever since. ~~~~~ Speaker Boehner and the GOP House majority face daunting challenges. The GOP controls both the House and the Senate, but neither chamber has a large enough majority to be veto-proof -- that is having enough votes to override the vetos of many pieces of legislation already being threatened by President Obama. The Keystone pipeline legislation is a good example. Republicans appear to have more than enough votes to clear it through the Senate - the House passed it last year but the Democrat Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, refused to consider the bill. But, White House spokesman Josh Earnest has outlined a series of concerns with the pipeline before adding : "I'm not prepared at this point to issue a veto threat related to that specific piece of legislation." Republicans believe the Keystone pipeline legislation is a bipartisan jobs bill of the type that should be signed into law, "...if the President puts his famous pen to use signing bills rather than vetoing legislation his liberal allies don't like," McConnell said late last year. But, in addition to the veto threat of President Obama, as well as his copious use of executive orders to bypass Congress and act against the express desires of American voters, John Boehner must manage the conservative grassroots activists and some big media personalities who remain undeterred in their effort to oust him or torpedo his legislative leadership. Fox News’s Sean Hannity and commentator Michelle Malkin have been calling for Boehner’s ouster. And grassroots Tea Party groups have launched online campaigns in recent days to depose Boehner. The Washington-based FreedomWorks has set up a Web portal on its site where activists can pressure members of Congress to oppose Boehner. In the past 72 hours, FreedomWorks activists have sent 18,000 messages and made more than 3,000 phone calls to lawmakers, while using the Boehner issue to fundraise. Matt Kibbe, the group’s president, said the effort would be a success, even if Boehner managed to hold on to power : “In terms of grassroots activism, dumping Boehner is a big deal that wil have a lasting impact on leadership. It makes Boehner more responsive to issues Republicans need to run on to win elections." ~~~~~ Dear readers, I'm tempted to revert to a variation of a Goldwaterism : "The GOP, love it or leave it." But, that would be being just as brain-dead as Boehner's antagonists. Do the tea partiers and no-quarter-given conservatives realize that America expects the GOP to govern - to oppose Obama's frighteningly unconstititional manipulation of the federal balance of powers. Do they understand that America did not elect the GOP to watch it commit suicide. Can they recognize that Boehner is not the problem...Obama is the problem. Are they so puffed up with their own importance that they are prepared to destroy the only party they have? Do they think that tomorrow morning - if they had defeated Boehner - they could do anything but pass bills that Obama would veto. Do they understand how hard it is to form a new party -- and do they realize that it would be impossible to do so in time for the 2016 election. The Republican Party shares most of their goals and principles. It welcomes their important contribution to taking back America from the leftist marauders. But, as the Washington adage goes : "You meet the same people on the way down that you met on the way up." The GOP's newcomers ought to remember that the next time they attempt to bite the hand that feeds them.