Boehner safe at home
by digby
Heard more about conference from House Rs. Surprisingly at ease. Many will vote no, but appetite for revolt/plot isn’t there
— Robert Costa (@robertcostaNRO) October 16, 2013
I’ve actually been really proud of Speaker Boehner over the last two and a half weeks. I don’t think he should be ashamed of anything he has done,” says Representative Raul Labrador, who made the remarks at the “Conversations With Conservatives” lunch.
“I would give him an ‘A.’ I think he’s done a very good job over the last few weeks,” says Representative Tom McClintock.
While some on the right have been sniping about peripheral issues, Boehner largely embraced the playbook put together by conservatives like Senators Ted Cruz, who wanted to use the continuing-resolution bill to wage a fight over Obamacare.
So now that the fight has been lost, it’s not Boehner whom they blame, but the GOP’s moderates, who pushed to end the government shutdown earlier.
“Actually I think the speaker stood up and said ‘this is what we’re going to do.’ I remember at conference on Thursday he said ‘there’s only one way out of this, and that’s to win.’ Well, that’s not the way it ended up,” says Representative Tim Huelskamp.
“But it’s pretty hard when he has a circle of 20 people that step up every day and say, ‘can we surrender today, Mr. Speaker? Can we just go away? Can we make it easy?’ I mean, whining and whining. I would say surrender caucus, but it’s a whiner caucus. And all they do is whine about the battle, as if they thought being elected to Washington was going to be an easy job,” he says…
Conservatives, including a group of senior conservatives that privately huddled after the Republican Study Committee meeting, declined to comment specifically on whether they approve of Boehner violating the Hastert rule on the vote.
But they were clear that, despite rumors to the contrary, there is no movement afoot to unseat the speaker.
“Absolutely no talk of anything along those lines. No talk,” former Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordan says.
Was this ever really in question? Could we please stop talking about how Boehner is a grown-up who is “forced” to do things against his will?
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