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The Right tries to block Boehner then tries to humiliate him and ends up going along to get along.

Still the bottom line is they do not like him and will not help.

He won with 220 votes when 218 was needed. Two votes over the top.

13 in his caucus either did not vote or voted for someone else. That is extremely rare. If Boehner had not won the vote during the first ballot, a second ballot would have taken place- and there hasn’t been a second ballot for Speaker since 1923!

However, it is pretty clear,  bunch of folks wanted that 2nd ballot. For a few moments, it seemed as if voting would require a second ballot. Boehner was two votes shy of 218. But per the chair’s instruction, the members abstaining were given a second opportunity to vote and those who had voted could change their votes. Four Republicans did one or the other, bringing Beohner’s total vote count to 220. Here are three very significant ones. After symbolically abstaining from voting in the initial call, Tea Party Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) changed their votes to “Boehner.”

All of this was the result of an intense “Fire Boehner” Campaign reported by conservatives across the country and then reported (and promoted) by Breitbart News and the Drudge Report (with Fox playing the role of “just reporting”). Conservativs claimed their polling showed that 85 percent of the respondents wanted Boehner out. Leading conservatives led by Ron Meyer and Celia Bigelow were actively campaigning for Cantor to throw his hat in the ring.

But what became clear was that there was no one willing to take Boehner’s place. Cantor loves being able to nip at Obama and Boehner from his seat as House Majority Leader and Ryan has national leadership ambitions. So, the conservative aim became to embarrass Boehner before he was reappointed.

But Boehner and/or his allies had foreseen the possibility and used a Parliamentary ruling that would allow voting to go on as long as necessary until 218 was hit. With the game fixed, GOP conservatives, unwilling to have the party (i.e. The Tea Party) further humiliated produced the votes need (and a bit more).

What a proud moment for the Weeper of the House. Yes? No?

Come on, elected by a bare majority because no one else wanted the job and they still had to fix the game.

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MurphTheSurf3
Proud to be an Independent Progressive. I am a progressive- a one time Eisenhower Republican (from 1965 through 2004)who is now a Democrat. I live in a very RED STATE and am a community activist with a very BLUE AGENDA. I was a professor of history, and am now a researcher and gentleman farmer. My political positions are mixed - thus my preferred identification as a Progressive Independent. I am conservative on matters of military intervention, in regard to abortion, immigration, the public school system, gun rights, taxation, voter ID. But I am a traditional conservative, a Buckley, National Review, Eisenhower Republican..... I am a liberal on matters of health care care, funding education, taxation (yes one can be both liberal and conservative on this), civil rights, and alternative energy development/climate change.

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SallyT
Member

Oh, heck Murph, I posted the wrong article on your post first and now I moved it to Off Topic. Sorry! But, I was reading your article and forgot to get out of it. See, you were just so gripping, you had me captured!

You called it as it was, Murph! Not much of a victory there, Boehner! And, they even nominated Allen West and he was voted out of the House! Wow, I probably would cry, too! It’s your party, Leslie Gore/Boehner!

SueInCa
Member

When you look at the entirety of the Republican party of today, there is not one person who stands out on honor, knowledge, bipartisanship, truly wanting to work, knowing what the American people wants etc. NOT ONE person. That is a sad commentary on what is supposed to be a viable political party, sad indeed.

agrippa
Member
agrippa

It appears to me, at the federal level at least, the GOP does not actually want to govern. I think that the behavior of the 112th Congress, the presidential campaign showed that. That Congress did nothing and no one competent wanted the nomination. ( Romney was not, by any means competent)
At the state level, the GOP were about the same; Christie, at least, talks a good game.

This comedy of an election shows the fatuity of those people.
They are adults in name only.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Hey agippa, I agree completely. Most in the GOP act like spoiled children who don’t get their way.

Beatlex
Member
Beatlex

My Boehner lies over the ocean
My Boehner lies over the sea

My Boehner lies over the ocean
Oh bring back my Boehner to me

AdLib
Admin

Boehner of a Lonely Heart.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Well said Murph, and informative. I was seriously hoping Boehner would lose, then I asked myself, just who would be his replacement and could he/she be even worse.

They’re all a bunch of fanatical ideologues who care more about the party than they do about their country.

Nirek
Member

KT, I agree, sadly.

kesmarn
Admin

What a nest of vipers, no Murph?

I was talking to a friend this morning who said a very similar thing: Cantor doesn’t want the job and Ryan plans to run for president.

It’s about as much of an honor as being the last kid picked for the volleyball team in middle school phys ed class.

It might almost be tempting to feel sorry for Lacrimose Johnny if he weren’t such a fundamentally mean SOB himself.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the fact that he’s been bragging about having told a startled Harry Reid while passing him outside the Oval Office to ‘Go F**k Himself.” Twice, no less.

McConnell filibusters himself. Boehner can’t get his own Plan B passed. First he says he’ll pass whatever fiscal cliff deal the Senate has, then he refuses to hold a vote. Then he changes his mind AGAIN. And votes for it himself. Then he refuses to have a vote on Hurricane Sandy relief. Then changes his mind again. Michelle Bachmann presents a bill to try to overturn “Obamacare” for — what? — something like the 37th time…more time wasting insanity. A bill that would never pass the Senate.

If this doesn’t scream “madness” to the American electorate, I don’t know what ever will.

P.S. The illustration attached to your article actually does look like the Weeper! 😆

Nirek
Member

Boehner has set the bar so low for the last congress that he should be able to beat his own record. Too bad we don’t have a good and decent speaker.

choicelady
Member

Nirek – I was thinking back on previous Speakers. Rayburn, Tip O’Neill, even Martin who was GOP, and it was not until Newt that we got Speakers who were venal, disgusting, and hyper-partisan. The whole world changed with Reagan who gave permission – even encouragement – to ignorance, stupidity, and division. What horrifies me is how many Americans bought it and how many still do.

When I was younger during Vietnam, surely one of our most contentious periods EVER, a GOP Senator championed the conscientious objector status of his young constituents, most of whom would not have voted for him had they been older. He did it anyway. It was the Northern GOP whose votes helped pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Where did all that go so that GOP Speakers reflect the diminishing returns of a decadent party?

The single change was the admittance of religious extremists to central positions of power and authority in the GOP. That was Reagan’s cop out and sell out. Rather than showing respect but keeping them in their place, the party capitulated and still is. Dominionists call the shots even now – Baggers largely are religious extremists, too.

If the GOP wish to be “relevant” outside the walled and gated country club communities, they need to get real, stop embracing extremist views, and start finding educated people with real American not just RW religious values. Boehner is the LEAST awful presence, and he is clearly and obviously deteriorating from RW pressure and their unrelenting demand that he be irrational. It’s downhill from here when HE is the best they can do.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Hey CL. The man who was once considered to be “the father of Ameican conservatism,” Barry Goldwater, warned his party of the ever encroaching RW religious fundamentalists. He told them that the fundies would hurt their party. Sure enough, ole Barry was absolutely correct.

choicelady
Member

He was indeed correct, KT. If you read Jeff Sharlet’s amazing work, “The Family” you’ll see that these zealots had designs on America since the Depression, and when they lost in ’64, they used that time QUIETLY and corruptly to gain control.

They hate the Constitution, they do not revere it as they claim. The honest ones will admit they believe rights are for ONLY Born Again Christians though they cannot find anything to support that IN the Constitution.

About the separation of church and state, I had one chirpy young woman pronounce to me that “The founding fathers got it a little bit wrong. We will make it right.”

Aaaaaggghhhhhhh!