Saturday, September 26, 2015
Saturday Politics - John Boehner and the Future of the GOP
It's Saturday politics. One event overshadowed all others. ~~~~~ The shock of the year came Friday when House Speaker John Boehner -- under fire from the House tea party conservative Gang of 50 for several years and being threatened with a vote of confidence over their determination to shut down the government rather than agree to a budget that funds Planned Parenthood -- suddenly announced his resignation from Congress at the end of October. He had planned to retire at year's end. Boehner, 65, said : "Prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution....The first job of any speaker is to protect this institution that we all love." In an emotional news conference, Boehner thanked his family and constituents, and said he's proud of his accomplishments. Boehner said he plans to get as much work done as he can on outstanding fiscal issues before he leaves Congress at the end of October -- seen as a threat to join with Democrats to enact a clean budget, raise the debt ceiling and reinstate the Export-Import Bank. Boehner is a consummate compromise lawmaker who drove a conservative agenda to reduce government size and budgets : "My mission every day is to fight for a smaller, less costly and more accountable government. Over the last five years, our majority has advanced conservative reforms that will help our children and their children. I am proud of what we have accomplished." ~~~~~ John Boehner's resignation was a thunderbolt in Washington. President Obama said he was taken by surprise by Boehner's decision and phoned the Republican leader. Obama often unfairly attacked Speaker Boehner publicly, but said Friday : "John Boehner is a good man. He is a patriot. He cares deeply about the House....He cares about his constituents and he cares about America. We have obviously had a lot of disagreements, and politically we're at different ends of the spectrum, but I will tell you he has always conducted himself with courtesy and civility with me." Boehner said the choice of the next speaker is up to members of Congress, but he thinks House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy would make an "excellent Speaker." In a prepared statement, McCarthy praised Boehner for a "depth of character [that] is unmatched," adding : "Now is the time for our conference to focus on healing and unifying to face the challenges ahead and always do what is best for the American people." ~~~~~ Republicans at a Washington conference cheered when GOP presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio announced the news. Rubio said : "It's not about him or anybody else, and I'm not here to bash anyone, but the time has come to turn the page - and allow a new generation of leadership in this country." ~~~~~ Dear readers, Speaker Boehner and Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are despised by the tea party and Gang of 50 since they refuse to shut down government for battles they cannot win because of the Obama veto. Speaker Boehner was brought down by this uncompromising conservative minority Gang of 50 in the GOP House caucus, where the majority supports Boehner. The fear is that unless a GOP House leader emerges who can control the entire caucus, this vocal minority, with no realistic achievable plan for governing, may destroy the GOP's chance of winning the presidency in 2016. The tea party outsider fury that drove Boehner out may create again the perception that the GOP is divided and unable to govern. It will be a devastating legacy for the Gang of 50 -- reminiscent of the legacy of 1964 and as disastrous in 2016 as it was in 1964 -- unless a coalition of insider and outsider Republicans who honestly care about the survival of the GOP - Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and Jeb Bush - can pull the GOP together, support the new House Speaker and provide policy leadership to go forward into 2016 as a united Party. If the outsider fury and know-nothing posturing of Donald Trump prevail, the Democrats will elect Hillary Clinton and the radical tea party conservatives will have destroyed not only the GOP but also America.
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I’m not completely sold on the idea that the wellbeing of the GOP is directly tied to what John Boehner, Mitch McConnell or any of the other inside the beltway republicans does or doesn’t do.
ReplyDeleteThe longevity, the continuation of the GOP has to do with each and every registered republican voter in every city, township, county, and state. The GOP is what we want it to be or allow it to be. It’s as viable as we contribute monies to it.
So it is us. And if we are Absent, Disinterested, or Detached (ADD) then the party will be representative of those inside the beltway – not the heart and soul of the GOP.
It has been nearly impossible for the present GOP leadership to save the Republican Party, but also to save the Republic itself against an out-of-control President. At times it seems that the elected GOP officials in Washington DC are playing a gentleman’s game while the democrat’s and Obama are engaged in a street brawl.
DeleteWe need leaders who are solid, who are intelligent, who are strategic, and who are constitutionalists, who can bring in– not just the mainstay of the Party– but demonstrate to millions of silent voters in the grassroots that the message has finally been received. We need to see that there is a serious effort—not just a PR effort—but a serious effort to try to govern and keep the President in check—that they are prepared to fight, prepared to show courage, and that they’re going to stop cutting deals with the inside the beltway mob.
Republicans need BOLD leadership now more than ever. The people need BOLD leadership in Congress to save their republic and protect their Constitution.
We are at an unbelievably hazardous time in our history. We have seen our rights endowed by our Creator and protected by the Constitution being eroded and taken away.
In 2010 the democrats controlled both houses of congress and the white house. The GOP said then they needed control of Congress to stop Obama. Well in 2010 the voters gave them (GOP) the House of Representatives’. In 2012 the voters gave them the Senate. Since then the leadership offered up by their fellow elected republicans of Boehner & McConnell have switched their tune to say now they both houses of Congress and the White House to make a difference and save this country.
ReplyDeleteAssume they get the White House in 2016 and retain both houses of Congress (both assumptions now seen to be monumental) what will the lack of any GOP leadership offer up for a reason of their continual compromise with the democrat’s thereby producing advancement for the progressive Socialist causes that the democratic support.
Is it time for the United States to add a new third political party that will offer up a home for what the mainstream of the American voters want done to reverse this sliding towards a socialistic state like the EU overburdened with debt from entitlement programs that replaces individual effort and self-responsibility?
Did John Boehner suffer from being the ‘heir apparent’ rather than the best choice to be Speaker of the House?
From the collapse of the leadership of senator McConnell it is apparent that he was popular choice to be leader – not the logical choice.
Obama via a continuous state of one emergency, one scandal, and one uproar after another has kept the GOP playing defense. You may well have the best defense in the world, but if you never get to play offense, never score any points, never demonstrate what your game plan is, then you will never be the winning team.
ReplyDeleteIf there are snowballing disasters then the atmosphere is suitable for autocratic changes. These disasters should be external, vague, and immune to proof as most tyrants have learned.
Every week if not every day there is some lie that is a provable lie coming out of the Obama administration. And yet the abysmal GOP caucus has chosen to not attack lies with the truth. The GOP has gone along for the most part that the economy is greatly improving, unemployment is minimal, the Middle East policy is working, the Iranian nuclear deal is good for everyone, etc.
Good defense keeps you in the game … good offense makes winning possible. Right now we are barely in the game and loosing is right in front of us.
John Boehner is not going to retire to Ohio in the Spring/Summer period and Florida in the Fall/Winter season.
ReplyDeleteAnd whenever or wherever he surfaces again will undoubtedly tell us a lot about the "real" reasons he departed the GOP, the House of Representatives, and the unfinished business he is so willing ready to leave behind in someone else’s hands.
There is almost an air of something shadowy happening here and “what it is ain’t exactly clear” as the Buffalo Springfield sang about.