No Honor Among Thieves In Boehnerland

No wonder Paul Ryan, still premising the future of America-- despite heavy GOP losses in November-- on the repeal of Obamacare, ruled out the idea of running for Speaker or Majority Leader of the fractious and dysfunctional civil-war ravaged House Republican Caucus. Just as Cantor's Chief Whip, Bakersfield wingnut Kevin McCarthy, was bragging that they feel free to trample on the "Hastert rule" whenever it suits their purposes, he, Boehner, Cantor and their cronies were facing up to the fact that they can't even count on their own caucus to follow them on procedural votes any longer.

House Republican leaders have a new problem. They can’t count on their members to support them on procedural votes.

Sixteen Republicans defected Wednesday in a vote on the rule governing consideration of a government-funding bill meant to prevent a government shutdown. The defections could have caused the rule to fail since most Democrats voted also voted against it.

Even more striking? Seven of the Republicans who voted against the rule then voted for the funding bill.

Votes on rules are supposed to be party-line and serve as tests of a caucus’s unity. So it was disconcerting for leaders to see so many Republicans vote against the rule they had crafted.

Worse, from a leadership perspective, is that some Republicans say they plan on doing it again if they feel leaders are limiting them from offering controversial amendments on the floor.

Boehner's ass was saved because there were 17 Democrats who missed the vote and two ConservaDems Boehner and Cantor know they can always count on (Ron Barber and Bill Owens)-- but what worries them is that McCarthy and his team were unaware what was brewing. The "We Hate Boehner Caucus" inside the GOP is growing stronger and stronger and the revelations about what a snake he was to Bob Ney (on top of how he had basically treated Joe Walsh similarly) worries rank and file Republicans about his integrity and even the basic premise of honors among thieves.

Several conservatives switched their positions on the rule under pressure from interest groups that on Wednesday morning announced they intended to score votes on the rule.

Freedom Works, for example, was livid that GOP leaders refused to allow a floor vote on an amendment to defund the implementation of President Obama’s healthcare law.

The conservative group sent out an action alert to its members on Wednesday under the heading “Demand Boehner Defund Obamacare.“

Several of the seven lawmakers who supported passage of the bill but opposed the rule vote cited the Obamacare exclusion in explaining their votes.

...Huelskamp, who has a tempestuous relationship with GOP leaders after they stripped him of his committee assignment last year, said the vote shows the willingness of Republicans to take on their leaders-- though he suggested the GOP class of 1994 was even more willing to do so.

Kansas crackpot Tim Huelskamp, who authored the crazy anti-Obamacare amendment, rounded up 6 other Republicans who were willing to vote for the bill but also willing to shove it to Boehner by voting against the rule-- John Fleming (R-LA), Steve Pearce (R-NM), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Walter Jones (R-NC), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Ted Yoho (R-FL). Erick Erickson is now working to elevate the anti-Boehner faction as the Conservative Fight Club:

The ten members of the Conservative Fight Club are:

• Amash

• Bridenstine

• Broun
• Gohmert
• Huelskamp
• Jones
• Massie
• Pearce
• Salmon
• Yoho

They are now the gold standard for conservatives in the House. They replace men like Jim Jordan and Tom Graves. Matt Salmon, who has been urging conservatives to vote down rules, is rapidly becoming a conservative leader in Congress. Though he did not vote against John Boehner, history shows he helped lead the movement to oust Newt Gingrich back in the day.

He’s finding his footing again and it is a very good thing.

The other congressmen who stood with the Fight Club are:

• Brooks
• Fleming
• Gingrey
• Kingston
• McClintock
• Rohrabacher

They should all be commended.

Meanwhile McCarthy's declaration on CNN yesterday that Team Boehner is ready to discard the Hastert Rule whenever they feel the need, is sure to incense the radical right members of the caucus even further. Their biggest fear is that mainstream conservatives and the relatively unified Democratic caucus will team up to pass popular measures like immigration reform and gun safety legislation. The problem for the radicals and extremists is more than just ideological. Most of them are from carefully gerrymandered Confederate districts that would be happy to secede again and where these measures are anathema. The rest are from districts where these measures are popular and for them to pass-- the way the Violence Against Women bill passed, for example, but to see their own congressman vote against it, is risky politically.

In 2014, for example, Ohio Republicans Steve Chabot, Bill Johnson, Jim Jordan, Bob Latta, and Brad Wenstrup may face ads asking why they're supporting a war against women when both Ohio senators-- Democrat Sherrod Brown and conservative Republican Rob Portman-- voted to reauthorize the bill-- as did mainstream Ohio conservative Republicans Jim Renacci, Steve Stivers, Bob Gibbs and Mike Turner. It probably won't matter in Jordan's backward district but if the DCCC handles it correctly, it could definitely end Chabot's, Johnson's and perhaps Wenstrup's careers.