Conservatives Freak Out, Call for Boehner to be Fired and Blame Obama

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:40 pm

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Ideology crashed into reality tonight after the fiscal cliff vote, and conservatives are utterly miserable. They want Boehner fired and they’re blaming Obama for the House GOP failure.

At Breitbart, they freaked out over the showdown between “Team Boehner and Team Cantor.” Pointing out Boehner’s weakness now that Plan B failed and he’s had to stand up for the Senate bill, they pointed out, “That means Cantor, who’s wanted the speakership for a long time, could strike now and challenge Boehner in the election for House officeholders on Thursday–or he’ll likely have to wait at least another two years.”

Inner war on? Check.

The base hasn’t met the wall yet, and from their tweets, it’s looking like they never will. They want Boehner gone:

Who is John Galt? ‏@Dagny_Galt: Begging for it // @edwhitesox: To House GOP: We will assume that a yes vote means you’re ok with a 2014 primary challenge #GOP

‏@TeaPartyBoise: HOUSE GOP DIDN’T EVEN PUT UP A FIGHT. A POX ON THIS PARTY. http://www.c-span.org/Events/Fiscal-Cliff-Agreement-Passes-in-the-Senate-House-to-Act-Next/10737436933-4/ …

‏@RockyTop_VA :A majority of House GOP voted no. @SpeakerBoehner voted yes. Time for a new Speaker of the House. #ByeCryingJohn

‏@iDefendFreedom: @GOP House #GOP you are so disappointing. Spineless cowards.

‏@javalyzer: House GOP do not vote for this crap. We would rather have the dems own failure than to you to go along for the ride #tcot #stopsocialism

Also, it is now Obama’s fault that the House GOP is falling apart. To wit:

‏@NCHometownGirl: BHO achieved his goal of destroying the House GOP – that’s all this was about.He cares nothing for the middle class or poor. #tcot

Conservatives didn’t see this coming. They really thought they could take another hostage and win. They were warned.

Brit Hume ‏@brithume Appears the House GOP’s pie-in-the-sky caucus will blow up the deal, leaving new higher tax rates in place and assuring Rs get all blame.

Ideology, meet reality.

It pains me to report that FreedomWorks, the Heritage Foundation, Americans For Prosperity and the American Conservative Union were particularly upset today, with Freedom Works saying they were opposed to letting any of the Bush tax cuts expire. So much good money wasted on lobbying.

They tried to stay strong. In the House meetings, No. 2 Republican Eric Cantor led the charge against the Senate bill, with nervous Republicans falling in line behind him. Then Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette sneered, “We should not take a package put together by a bunch of octogenarians on New Year’s Eve.”

We had the Republican “policy” wonks weighing in, with defeated presidential candidate Newt Gingrich tweeting,

My simple message to house republicans is “dont cave”! You can amend the bill and the Senate will have to face reality that you exist

Dave Weigel described defeated Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan appearing after a House meeting with his iPod ear piece in place, refusing to answer any questions, later telling reporters that he just wanted to get the score. Weigel said they wondered what he meant, since the CBO had already scored the deal. No, not the very serious budget score, silly reporters. The Rose Bowl. This is your top Republican policy wonk.

By the way, conservatives, Paul Ryan voted yes.

Nancy Pelosi, who must have been watching Boehner’s hapless attempts to wrangle the nihilists with wry amusement, called the vote a “Happy start to a New Year.” She also thanked the Speaker for doing his job, “We thank Speaker Boehner for bringing this legislation to the floor.” Yes, thank you John Boehner for actually bringing something to a vote!

But hey conservatives, won’t you buy the new Republican narrative? Somehow the House Republicans are pretending this was a win for them; as I predicted yesterday, they claimed that since we already went over the cliff and the Bush tax cuts already ended, they are cutting taxes. Uh-huh.

Conservative Charles Krauthammer called it a complete “rout” by the Democrats, “This is a complete surrender on everything. The ratio of tax hikes to spending cuts is 40 to 1, rather than 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 or 1 to 3. So, I mean it’s a complete rout by the Democrats.”

The bitter burns. MATT DRUDGE tweeted, “‏@DRUDGE: Dems slaughtering GOP on House floor this evening. Pelosi can feel gavel back in her hands. ‘Strong first step’ ‘Happy start to new year’.”

The House Republicans finally ran into that wall tonight. The wall of reality. This isn’t going to go well, because as we all know, tea is the opposite of reality.

Update: House Republicans let the bill for hurricane relief for Sandy die tonight. Some are blaming Cantor, who sets the House schedule. jennifer bendery tweeted, “‏@jbendery: Boehner aide refers questions about Sandy aid bill to Cantor’s office.”

Sarah Jones

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