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Conservatives choose irrelevance (comical piece)
Washington Examiner ^ | 12/21/12 | Conn Caroll

Posted on 12/21/2012 12:04:59 PM PST by cotton1706

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” That is what House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told his fellow Republicans last night. And apparently one of the things that Boehner now knows he cannot change is the willingness of some conservatives in his caucus to compromise on anything.

At 7:45 pm last night, Boehner informed his Republican colleagues that he did not have the votes necessary to pass his Plan B solution to the fiscal cliff crisis. “The House did not take up the tax measure today because it did not have sufficient support from our members to pass,” the official Boehner statement read.

What happens now is anyone’s guess. Boehner said last night, and will reportedly say again at a 10:00 am press conference this morning, that it is up to President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to pass their own fiscal cliff solution. The Boehner-Obama negotiations appear to be over. There will be no grand bargain.

The more likely scenarios are that we either go over the fiscal cliff, or Boehner agrees to vote on a Senate bill which extends the current tax rates for everyone making under $250,000. Either way, by choosing to abandon their leader in the middle of high stakes negotiations, House conservatives have assured that whatever final deal does get done, whether its before or after January 1st, it will have to be passed with a majority of Democratic votes. By refusing to compromise at all, House conservatives have completely marginalized themselves, making them effectively irrelevant, not just for the fiscal cliff negotiations, but for at least the next two years as well.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan was asked by a conservative constituent from New Hampshire, “We’ve been reading in the Union Leader in recent weeks and hearing from our senior Senator Gordon Humphrey, that they feel that you’re moving away from the policies and principles that got you elected. How would you react to those statements by them?”

Reagan replied, “I’m not retreating an inch from where I was. But I also recognize this: There are some people who would have you so stand on principle that if you don’t get all that you’ve asked for from the legislature, why, you jump off the cliff with the flag flying. I have always figured that a half a loaf is better than none, and I know that in the democratic process you’re not going to always get everything you want.”

Today’s House conservatives, and the organizations that pressure them, have completely abandoned the wisdom of Reagan. As a result the conservative movement is now weaker.


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS:
Love these spinmeisters. Conservatives are irrelevant now, he says. Really. We just disrobed the Speaker of the House, who just a year ago, told his troops to get their "asses in line" to vote for the Debt Deal.

It is that same Speaker of the House who is now irrelevent. If a republican speaker needs to get democrat votes to pass legislation he is the tool of the democrats.

The conservatives held the line and STRENGTHENED the conservative movement. No more will they listen to the pretzel-twisted logic that increasing taxes is actually a tax cut because they would go up otherwise. Republicans stick to party, conservatives stick to principle, "let right be done, or the heavens fall." Convervatives have compromised enough and if the country is to go to hell, then it can go there without their fingerprints on the throttle. Boehner and his good friends the democrats can all get together and pass whatever legislation they want.

1 posted on 12/21/2012 12:05:02 PM PST by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

My top choice of “the cliff”, Plan B, or the Democrats’ class warfare is The Cliff. I hope we end up there if the far left is not willing to cut spending.


2 posted on 12/21/2012 12:12:33 PM PST by Pollster1 (Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: cotton1706

I’m all for the rebellion, open or not, against the elite Republican powerati that accepts, neigh welcomes, second tier status and the limited power that the furher deigns to give them to keep their minions in line so that they can enjoy the trappings of that DC cesspool they’ve so come to love over their hometowns they’ve long ago foresaken. Boner forgot where he came decades ago.


3 posted on 12/21/2012 12:14:50 PM PST by Gaffer
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To: cotton1706; All

Flashback from the same delusional RINO apologist author:

Why America is breaking for Romney
October 20, 2012 | 8:00 pm

Conn Carroll
Senior Editorial Writer
The Washington Examiner

http://washingtonexaminer.com/why-america-is-breaking-for-romney/article/2511249#.UNTDKW-7Oh0


4 posted on 12/21/2012 12:21:11 PM PST by jimbo123
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To: cotton1706

Getting half a loaf doesn’t mean much when you are still going over the cliff.


5 posted on 12/21/2012 12:42:46 PM PST by marron
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To: cotton1706

For these people, if they can get the Republicans to agree to the terms of our leap from the cliff, there is no cliff.

Guys like Boehner agree to that logic too.


6 posted on 12/21/2012 12:44:39 PM PST by marron
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To: cotton1706; Perkalong; ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas; stephenjohnbanker; DoughtyOne; Gilbo_3; ...
RE :”The more likely scenarios are that we either go over the fiscal cliff, or Boehner agrees to vote on a Senate bill which extends the current tax rates for everyone making under $250,000. Either way, by choosing to abandon their leader in the middle of high stakes negotiations, House conservatives have assured that whatever final deal does get done, whether its before or after January 1st, it will have to be passed with a majority of Democratic votes. By refusing to compromise at all, House conservatives have completely marginalized themselves, making them effectively irrelevant, not just for the fiscal cliff negotiations, but for at least the next two years as well.

This is a very likely scenario, that Bohner goes and gets a few Republicans to join Dems to pass a bill that make plan B look great. Especially when the heat gets turned up.

But before the holyer-than-thou's start pouring out, notice that no one in the House will challenge Bohner as Speaker, that because they don't want that impossible job to be Os bitch,hated by general voters ,hated by their base, and lose the house to Pelosi next election anyway as Bohner will,

They will vote to make Bohner speaker again and sit by (voting no) and let the House cave to O and sign HIS terms for surrender making plan B look like a big win.

Their votes NO will be as relevant as their 33 symbolic repeals to O-care. None of them will stand up and offer themselves as House Speaker.

The R party is cooked. It is over.

7 posted on 12/22/2012 10:31:51 PM PST by sickoflibs (Dems know how to win. Rs know how to whine.)
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