Discussion for article #241109
the objections of the so-called Freedom Caucus
They really call themselves the Freedom Caucus? Why not go all in and call themselves the, “Patriots for God (not Allah), Freedom (not for women), and The Divine American Exceptionalism (for white and wealthy) Way Caucus?”
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I dunno… check me here but this is just Boehner being gutless to the end…
if he really wanted to do something to go out in style he’d drop a fully funded budget resolution that funds thru the whole fiscal year and not a continuing resolution that just gives him time to get out of town…
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I agree. Go All-in.
I wonder if that would get passed, though?
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No
Look, if you talk about the crazies in his caucus threatening to stop a clean CR, there are two ways they could do that.
They could put up this privileged motion that the chair is vacant, which seems to preempt other votes, presumably including the vote on the clean CRs. Enough of them, plus the Ds, vote yes on that motion, and the incumbent is no longer Speaker, and can’t put up anything for a vote.
The other way works only if the Speaker needs other people in the leadership to get something like these clean CRs to the floor for a vote. The crazies would threaten the future leadership careers of whoever is needed to bring the clean CRs to the floor.
Making yourself a lame duck doesn’t improve your ability to fend off either mode of attack.
There’s less threat of retaliation for making the motion of vacancy or voting yes on it, if the Speaker you’re ousting is leaving soon anyway. Sure, you no longer need the vacancy motion to get rid of the Speaker in the long run, but if the whole point of the exercise is to keep clean CRs off the floor, yes, you still need the motion of vacancy to preempt that. Now its easier, less risky.
The effect on the other members of the leadership, aside form Boehner himself, is even greater. Announcing you’re resigning means that it is now definite that they will face election soon to move up, or even keep their current positions. This makes them maximally susceptible to pressures from all quarters, including the pressure to block the CRs from coming to the floor.
Sure, deciding to quit takes pressure off Boehner to make the crazies happy, because he no longer has to fear that they will take his job away. But announcing that decision made him a lame duck, and thereby less able to do anything with the time he has left in the Speakership. Maybe his lame duck status won’t fatally weaken his power, maybe he will still be able to get clean CRs to the floor. But making himself a lame duck had no prospect of making that task anything but more difficult and risky.
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they call themselves that because irony escapes them…
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So all the crazies in the House, plus all the remaining republican candidates wanting to tack to the loon in primaries, will be screaming that we have to shut down the government and default on the debt for Christmas? Whee.
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You say you hoped that Mister Gutless To The End would make some Grand Bargain With President Libtard of Kenya to avoid the next coming Fiscal Cliff. That not only would run contrary to everything else in his time as Speaker, but also his time in Congress, his time in politics and his time on this planet, plus it could only be done with the support of 60 or more establishment GOP House members who, it seems, are NOT planning on leaving the House and ending their political careers on being primaried before November 2016.
We need not just continuation of what is already planned on being funded but also the Highways bill done, a debt ceiling rise, and the next budget passed, all with decided opposition from the Free Dumb Caucus now running Congress and continued gutlessness from the even more Tea Party sympathetic Kevin McCarthy and the leadership, such as it is, left over once Boehner has left. I fail to see how ANY of that possibly could happen now.
I almost wonder if he did it so the republicans wouldn’t embarrass themselves with that bs again?
If John Boehner avoids the government shutdown, his successor presumably Kevin McCarthy will be tainted by it. John Boehner has no particular advantage as a result of resigning.
The Koch brothers deserve a great deal of credit for forcing John Boehner out. They used their enormous wealth and worked tirelessly behind the scenes to pull this off this graceful coup. John Boehner even regaled conservatives with a drunken version of “Its a Wonderful Day” as he entered the stage to announce his resignation. The Kochs have done something that benefits ordinary Americans and can be cheered by Republicans and Democrats alike.
The Shutdown Threat is one of the emptiest cupboards in the GOP kitchen. The SECOND they start talking about a shutdown to get what they want, you walk out and refuse to even TALK to them.
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Darn!
…and I was so looking forward to roasting marshmallows over the pyre of the sacrificial teabaggers…
I wonder if this is how it worked in antiquity? A human sacrifice would keep the locals happy for a while then a few months later like clockwork another sacrifice is required. The reason changed, from crops and evil spirits to funding bills and era-marks. Bloodlust is a funny thing.