Posted on 12/21/2012 5:18:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
At a quarter to 8 p.m. on Thursday night, House Republicans gathered in the Capitol basement for an urgent, closed-door conference meeting. The scene was hushed and confused. Instead of huddling in a windowless room, members thought they’d spend the evening on the House floor, voting on “Plan B,” Speaker John Boehner’s fiscal-cliff proposal. But as they took their seats and looked at Boehner’s face, the reason for the gathering became clear: The speaker didn’t have the votes. The whipping was over. “Plan B” was dead.
Boehner’s speech to the group was short and curt: He said his plan didn’t have enough support, and that the House would adjourn until after Christmas, perhaps even later. But it was Boehner’s tone and body language that caught most Republicans off guard. The speaker looked defeated, unhappy, and exhausted after hours of wrangling. He didn’t want to fight. There was no name-calling. As a devout Roman Catholic, Boehner wanted to pray. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,” he told the crowd, according to attendees.
There were audible gasps of surprise, especially from freshman lawmakers who didn’t see the meltdown coming. Boehner’s friends were shocked, and voiced their disappointment so the speaker’s foes could hear. “My buddies and I said the same thing to each other,” a Boehner ally told me later. “We looked at each other, rolled our eyes, and just groaned. This is a disaster.”
Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, a burly former car dealer, stood up and urged the conference to get behind the speaker. “How the hell can you do this?” Kelly asked, according to several people inside the room. A few of Boehner’s critics told Kelly to stop lecturing, but most were silent. They had been battling against “Plan B” all week, and quite suddenly, they had crippled the leadership. Boehner sensed the tension, requested calm, and then exited the room.
Since the meeting lasted only a few minutes, several members, such as Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, missed the session. As Huelskamp, a leading “Plan B” adversary, rushed to get there, he saw a stream of his colleagues exiting. They were on their phones with aides and family members, sharing the news. They’d be coming home for the holidays since the House was in a state of chaos. Some of them, however, seemed bewildered by the turn of events. They walked slowly down the basement hallway, whispering with other members. One freshman asked a senior member, “Are we really not coming back?” The senior member simply nodded. Almost everyone avoided the press. Feelings were raw. Representative Steve King of Iowa, a frequent Boehner critic, looked at me, shook his head, and said, “I have nothing to say.”
Boehner and his leadership team soon departed. Kevin McCarthy, the GOP whip, who hours earlier was meeting with on-the-fence members over Chick-fil-A sandwiches in his office, left the Capitol looking distressed. So did Eric Cantor, the majority leader, who had spent the past two days wooing backbenchers. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Budget Committee chairman and recent Republican vice-presidential candidate, strolled out of the Capitol with Representative Tom Price of Georgia, a popular conservative who has expressed his unhappiness with Boehner’s cliff strategy. The pair declined to discuss the drama, but they both looked tired and frustrated.
Upstairs by the House floor, which was now closed after Boehner’s announcement, a handful of senior members discussed the whip count. They decided to go out for drinks near Union Station, in order to avoid their colleagues who’d be hanging at the Capitol Hill Club on the House side. “I don’t want to talk to the people who ruined this, at least right now,” a retiring House member told me. “They don’t get it.” Another senior member told me that Boehner was always going to struggle with the whip count since most House conservatives have little interest in seeing the speaker strike any kind of deal. “Boehner was trying to play chess and the caucus was playing checkers,” he said, sighing. “Boehner is willing to lose a pawn for a queen. I’m not sure about the rest.”
Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, a conservative with libertarian leanings, was stunned. As he walked back to his office, he said the episode was unfortunate, even though he was planning to vote against the measure. For the past month, since House leaders booted him off the budget committee, he has been railing against Boehner for his management style. But even Amash wondered whether the House GOP was making the right move. “Too many people in there were arguing that this thing is a tax increase, and I don’t think that’s what Boehner was trying to do,” he said. As much as he disagrees with Boehner’s approach, even he regretted how the speaker’s plan was killed.
Aides to House leaders stayed later than their bosses, talking to reporters and trying to spin the collapse of “Plan B” as something better than a complete failure. As the clock neared 9 p.m., they tried mightily to project strength, but the energy among all Republicans, members and staffers, was sapped. There were no upbeat talking points, no chummy gaggle. This is a talkative bunch of people, but on this dreary night, not so much.
Their deflated spirits were understandable. Earlier in the evening, House Republicans appeared to be close to passing “Plan B” with the requisite 217 votes. There are 241 Republicans in the House, and Boehner could risk 24 defections. In the final public whip count, which was documented by The Hill, fewer than 20 conservative members were opposed to the plan. But things began to fall apart in the early evening, when the margin on a spending vote was narrow. That vote was part of Boehner’s “Plan B” package, and a replacement for the defense sequester. Since that vote was narrow, the vote on Boehner’s larger plan to extend most tax rates would probably be even narrower, leadership aides predicted.
So, GOP leaders called for a recess, and spent the dinner hour doing a final try for 217. All day, McCarthy’s whips were very nervous about where “Plan B” stood, but for the most part, they didn’t let their uneasiness show. They thought that Boehner would find a way to get there. Boehner, who rarely gets involved in the whip process, spent Wednesday night on the House floor, shaking hands and talking with members, asking them for their support. He also went to a meeting of McCarthy’s whips, and encouraged them to make a hard sell.
But when conservatives, over and over again, refused to budge, Boehner personally decided to end the entire thing and pull it from the floor. If he didn’t have the support of his conference on his own plan, he’d walk away. He’d leave the fiscal cliff in the hands of Democrats. Boehner had spent weeks negotiating with his members and the president. But in this final hour, when he needed Republicans most, he had only a prayer.
— Robert Costa is National Review’s Washington editor.
Hope this spells the end of “Speaker” Boehner and one with my guts and brains will step up.
Oppps! Note to self “proofread then click POST”.
MY should be MORE.
What a bunch of Hooey. NR is still under the belief that the media would credit the GOP with any thing positive. Nothing that passes the House will make it to Obama’s desk, so WHY give in on a tax hike?
Pass an across the board tax and spending cut and go home. Obama wants the “cliff” no matter what. No give on the debt ceiling.
Elect some leadership with a spine rather than the Weepy Boner.
“Obama has now indicated he’s not going to Hawaii without a deal.”
I wish he would get stuck in DC but he will prolly say “oh well since the GOP has left the building I may as well just go on vacation”.
What is Newt’s Phone Number...the GOP-e screwed over him, time for payback
” - - - - conservatives, over and over again, refused to budge - - - “
And so the first successful shot across the RINO’s bow begins! Hip-Hip Howrah! Hip-Hip Hooray!! Hip-Hip Hoorah!!!
Benghazi-Coward B. Hussein Obama had been counting on the Liberal Agenda Media’s drumbeat of the artificial term “fiscal cliff” to distract from the reality that the Democrats have NO intention of ever cutting year-to-year Federal Spending.
Boehner assumed that RINO Power is invincible, and thus he could quickly cave-in to Obama, and the RINO herd would then follow Boehner despite a few Conservative Bumps in the Road to the holy grail of Bipartisan Cave-In.
There will be many more battles with the RINO Herd in the House before the Democrats are forced to cut Y2Y Federal Spending.
Hopefully, the Conservative’s shots across the the RINOs’ bow will soon be at the midship waterline of the SS RINO Line Ship ‘Bipartisan Cave-In.’
"“Boehner was trying to play chess and the caucus was playing checkers,” he said, sighing. “Boehner is willing to lose a pawn for a queen. I’m not sure about the rest.”"
Really, Boehner the strategic genius and opponents are just dummkopfs. Really? Boehner must be the greatest actor in the world, because he's sure played a absolutely convincing dummkopf for 2 years in the few times he's crawled out of his bunker.
Dear RINO's, the goal is to do what is good for the country. You guys seem to think the goal is to do what is in the immediate interest of John Boehner's and your careers. A deal is needed for your careers, and apparently it hasn't mattered, what's in the deal and the damage it'll do to the country (and to the GOP and ultimately to your careers). Who are the dummkopfs here?
boehner has not used the authority given the House of Representatives for 2 years. He could've cut spending. He could've stop funding for ObamaCare. He could've stop funding for Obama's illegal executive orders. Boehner did nothing.
Now, it's finally blown up in his face and you RINOs want to blame the opponents. This was inevitable due to having a Zero for your elected leader and spokesman.
Do you people realize how serious the situation is? Do you realize how angry and worried your voters are? You don't. Where's the urgency? Where are the tough decisions? We've seen nothing after giving you the House for 2 years. You wonder why people didn't turn out to vote? They've given up on the GOP. Do the right thing. Stop Obama. You have the power to do this and you haven't.
“We’re at this point becuase of his feckless leadership.”
You are spot on.
Those conservatives in top committee assignments he axed had no incentive to meekly go along with him on raising taxes and getting blamed for it.
I don’t know why everyone is crying. They were Bush’s tax cuts for the rich. No one else was impacted by it. So letting Bush’s tax cuts for the rich expire impacts just millionaires. Boehner got what he wanted.
What? You mean to tell me Bush gave tax cuts to EVERYONE? That’s not what Democrats and the media have been saying for the last 10 years.
You would think that the Republicans would have been in front of the American people telling them this... but noooooooooooooooooo.....
Monica Crowley said it correctly when she stated that the burden should have ALWAYS been on Obama and the democrats instead of Boehner and Republicans. Bad leadership, chess or Yahoo! Obama and Reid demonstrated that they were not willing to deal no matter.
What is insane here is that politicians’ spending is the issue that caused this problem and the same politicians are trying to fix this problem and are continuing to spend money. Look at all the money Obama is promising to governments worldwide and his precious groups. Nothing will change if a deal is reached. They are trying to put a band-aid on a machete wound.
The GOP has not cut one dime in spending nor voted to lower the debt ceiling since FDR. It’s a one party system of TWO Socialist parties. Spending is all they know.
The solution is so simple that only those who want to control more money can’t see it.
Our trillion dollar spending deficit is the cause of our debt. Why did we have this trillion dollar deficit in the first place? ANSWER: Because we made the emergency trillion dollar spending in 2009 to calm the markets due to the mortgage meltdown crisis.
The mortgage crisis is OVER. Why the heck are we still baselining our budget based on the anomaly of 2009?
Go back to our 2008 budget baseline -— which is $2.6 TRILLION ( NOT $3.6 trillion ).
Start there and our deficit would be 10 times less than what we have now. In fact, we don’t even have to raise taxes on anyone.
“Those conservatives in top committee assignments he axed had no incentive to meekly go along with him on raising taxes and getting blamed for it.”
Not to mention the freshmen or the people on their way out. They don’t owe him any loyalty.
We are this point because of OBAMA”
Nonsense. Speaker Bohener has continually chosen to “negotiate” a deal, i.e. a piece of legislation with the president. That is not how our government works. The president should not play any part in the crafting of legislation except perhaps making calls to individual members or suggesting amendments.
The House is its own entity. It is not a subset of the presidency. The House as a body does not need to check in with the president to find out what he will sign or what he wants. The president can sign it or not sign it when a final bill gets to him.
What he have been seeing is an intentional undermining of regular legislative order, which preserves liberty. In the debt-ceiling deal, Boehner, Reid and Obama acted like oligarchs. They met together in a room and decided what would happen, then strong-armed it into law, representative government and the people be damned. And Reid is acting as a shield to Obama because he won’t bring any bill the House passes to the floor of the Senate, or he does so it get’s voted down. He won’t allow any bill to be amended.
And Bohener has gone along with this, because he’s too weak to say “The House of Representatives will not deal with the president. We will pass bills under regular order and send them to the Senate. If the Senate chooses not to take them up, or amend them, there is nothing I can do. The House and Senate will never get to confernece to agree and the president will not receive any bill and the government will shut down if necessary.”
Exactly.
I can’t understand why everyone on this thread does not see that this is the way our Constitution is designed to work.
Also, I repeat that if boner really knew how to negotiate, he would remind obumbler that he has a long long 4 years ahead of him with lots of need for money bills and treating the house badly over taxes is going to make for a very bad 4 years.
Boehner just had a press conference and he did very well. Boehner deserves combat pay, not only does he have to walk through the landmines of Democrats and this Commie/Muslim-loving president, he has to worry about Republicans shooting him in the back.
As far as the "purge" is concerned, I'm not too sure he wasn't justified in doing that, knowing Ron Paul supporters the way I do.
Exactly, Obama does not want a deal—he wants economic chaos. There is nothing honorable about Obama, at all.
How did Boehner cripple himself starting with the “purge”?
I usually agree with you, however the deal to raise the debt ceiling (fiscal cliff) was Obamas’ idea, iirc, not Boehners’.
Methinks Jack Lew slept very soundly last night.
Boehner’s plan was bassackwards to start with. You formulate a plan, make sure you have the requisite backing and THEN announce it, including the backing stats in the announcement.
Fortunately there are enough principled conservatives in the House that won’t renege on their promise to vote against any tax increase.
Boehner is a bungler to the max and needs to be replaced, period. He hasn’t a clue about negotiating and has done much damage to the party.
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