Trouble Ahead for Speaker Boehner and It Gets Worse if Republicans Take the Senate

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Think the gridlock is bad in Washington now? If Republicans take over the Senate, it’s only going to get worse. It’s all starting in the House, which is set to go even further to the “right”.

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times made the case that the House will be shifting even further to the right, full of the types who call single parenthood ‘child abuse’ and call Hillary Clinton the Antichrist. Another tried to argue against religious liberty for Islam, saying they shouldn’t get a tax deduction because they’re not really a religion. Not exactly your most sane and in touch bunch coming into the House this election.

These conservatives will likely pull the House even further to the right, Weisman writes, and this is trouble for Speaker Boehner:

For the House speaker, John A. Boehner, the newest crop of conservatives will present at best a headache, at worst a leadership challenge. Many, including Mr. Ratcliffe, have refused to commit to voting for him to serve again as speaker, lending potential votes to rebellious conservatives who nearly defeated him in 2013.

The trouble gets worse if Republicans take the Senate:

And if Republicans take control of the Senate, the group will probably compound the difficulties House and Senate Republican leaders will have finding legislative unity.

This analysis is backed up by even Republicans, who are now telling their base that maybe they can’t really do much if they take the Senate, but hey, the show will be awesome! Much angry rhetoric, more investigations, and lots of Obama hate, which is almost like passing a jobs bill but not. Republicans think the show will tell voters exactly what the party stands for, which they believe will be good for them in 2016.

It will not be good for Republicans to control the Senate and be stuck having to actually pass things like Paul Ryan’s budget. This will be very bad news for Republicans, and Speaker John Boehner will have even less control of the Tea Party caucus, so we can expect the bills to be even more crazy.

It will not be good for Republicans to be stuck voting yes on privatizing Medicare and Social Security. Their big money masters will expect their quid pro quo and there will be no excuse, no Harry Reid speed bump against the crazy. This is not a good thing for the party. If the party is actually in control of both chambers, their inability to govern will be so blatantly obvious that even the Sunday shows might be forced to address it.

Either way, Speaker John Boehner faces a rough two years ahead — that is, if he manages to keep his Speakership out of the grasping claws of the crazy. This will only get worse if Republicans take the Senate. Should this happen, Boehner’s political legacy as Speaker will be forever tarnished by the extremists running his show and he won’t be able to blame Obama anymore.

It’s worth noting that we all accept that going further toward anarchy and political ugliness means going “further to the right.” If I were a Republican strategist, this would concern me. Republicans are setting themselves up for decades of bad branding, akin to Democrats in the 60s.

Sarah Jones

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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

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