Posted on 01/05/2013 9:55:10 AM PST by Kaslin
It's open season on the House Republicans these days, and the incoming fire isn't just coming from the left. Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, blasted House Speaker John Boehner for delaying a vote on Hurricane Sandy relief; the conservative commentator John Podhoretz accused right-wing members of Congress of "literally embracing chaos" with their ill-fated attempt to oust Boehner from the speakership on Thursday.
Even within the GOP, it seems, the House GOP's actions of late seem beyond the pale. So I set out to find someone to defend them. I called former Rep. Steve LaTourette, an outspoken ally of Boehner's whose resignation from his Cleveland-area seat after 18 years took effect a few days ago, to get his explanation of the method behind the recent madness. This is an edited transcript of our conversation.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
It would have been nice to see Boehner tell Reid that he wasn't going to give Reid's bill a vote in the House until Reid gave the GOP tax bill (passed last April) a vote in the Senate. But unfortunately, this is John Boehner we're talking about.
bottom line...the Democrats never have to worry about incoming fire from their moderate wing like the Republicans. They can go as far out to the radical left as they want, and the party is lockstep with them. On our side, we have Christie, McCain, Graham, etc (the list is endless), who are always there to take a shot at us so the media and Dems can run with it.
People complain about the tea party and the ‘right wing’, but our candidates almost all run as principled conservatives. We just ask for keeping promises. Our demands are popular...lower spending, low taxes, a government that’s not out of control. All ideas championed by a clear majority of voters.
and you know, for a fact, he didn’t.....
I’m not critical of ALL the House Republicans. Those AMERICANS who are conservative seem to be holding the line and doing something honorable, even in the face of undermining from their own party.
I’m pissed at the Republican LEADERSHIP in the House, AND the SENATE! They are a bunch of no-ball bastards supremely content to enjoy their second-rate loser power and bow and curtsy to the winners (Democrats).
They are supremely content in their long lived power and environment of the DC kind. The DC Utopia where unemployment is at 3%, all the businesses (the ones across the river from MD or out of the square) are doing fine....Billions and billions just gushing everywhere. They party, dine out, sup with friends in places around town where everybody knows their name. They appear Sunday on the political shows to get their appeasing egos stroked and to be made to think they actually have some power.
I’m pissed at THEM! They browbeat, and threaten and cajole the honest new conservatives to craft their appeasement amidst prodding from a liberal-complicit media according to Obama’s playbook, and then lie to their constituents back home about frigging tough they’ve been and how they held the line. If there is a God (there IS!) they’ll end up in hell one day - just like Teddy.
Indeed. They apparently understand the art of negotiation and the will to represent their district and the best interests of the Cou8ntry..
It's crazy. He's always fighting for Dem bills.
The only thing he does for the caucus is give them the chance to go on record as voting against awful bills that are passed.
It's a strategy that will get every House Republican- RINO or conservative- 'primaried' or 'third-partied' next year.
More GOPe Tea Party Bashing. 2014 is going to be bad.
Per the Constitution — all spending bills must originate in the House.
Boehner took a spending bill written by Democrats, in the Senate, and allowed the House to vote on it.
He could have stopped this. He could have stopped it on Constitutional grounds and insisted that the Senate vote on the GOP bill. But he didn’t.
That man is a fool.
I think people who paint with a wide brush are being unfair to those who have stood tall.
Sounds like LaTourette is better gone from the House. To be a leader is to provide the leadership peeps want to get behind.
Some said fight and some said let it burn.
The most telling thing of all is that not one Republican Congressman was willing to step forward and challenge Boehner for House Speaker. As much as Boehner sucks, he exhibits more willingness to lead than anyone else. (NOTE: I said ‘willingness’ - not ‘ability’)
From The Atlantic.
The Atlantic - when you flush a toilet in New York, the s**t goes into The Atlantic.
I. for one, am sick and tired of a bunch of hypocritical RINOs campaigning and promising one thing and then doing nothing but attending cocktail parties and kissing the butts of every lib inside the beltway, and so scared of their shadows that they jump when the kenyan says "boo", while collecting generous salaries.
FAIR???
We are ‘worried’ by them being FAIR??
Are we back in 5th grade?
Are we going to tell ‘Mommy’ that the D’s were MEAN to us?
I don’t believe in the word FAIR unless County, State, or Worlds precedes it OR an umpire and manager/player is discussing a batted ball.
We have to ‘grow up’ and respond in kind...
This basically goes back to GHWB NOT responding to some pretty crappy stuff - starve grandmothers, seniors eating dog food etc etc - by saying/thinking ‘The American People are smart enough to see through the lies’....Maybe but not bold enough to do something about it.
Voting for BO the 1st time was bad enough, the 2nd time is going to be a form of suicide AND, it would not surprise me to see D’s get a super majority in the Senate and win back the Congress in ‘14.
By ‘16 BO won’t have to lift a finger because the R ‘powers that be’ will reward BONER for such a good job by designating him the candidate in 16.
BO will win this, the greatest of wars, without firing a shot - ....
Sad ending to a Great Nation...
And “WE” collectively sit, and have sat, on our hands and are allowing it to take place.
Maybe ‘we’ should write more petitions about deporting Piers (whoever) and such foolishness.
Kind of like the POWERFUL house ‘banning the use of the word French Fries’ because France did something ‘we’ didn’t like.
These LIBS and their ‘institutions’ get more air and press time by ‘us’ quoting them, linking their blogs and referring to their TV shows much like MSM ‘sort of’ making folk heroes out of these mass shooters then wonder why another nut picks up a gun.
Baseball, for one, a long time ago REFUSED to show any outrageous behavior on the field by non players...notice the incidents go down when all you get for trying to burn the flag is getting your arse whipped, jail for trespassing and whatever ‘little’ charges can be mounted with the BIGGEST indignity being you didn’t make the ‘film at 11 segment’ of the local/national news.
This is going to sound mean-spirited, but I don't mean it that way. I simply want it explained to me.
NJ has some of the highest tax rates (property and income) in the US. It also has experienced severe flooding in the past, so cleaning up sand from streets, repairing public buildings and the like after a storm is nothing new. What I'm asking is: "Why are my tax dollars going to the cleanup effort in NJ?" I see these multimillion dollar homes paying huge property taxes and I have to wonder why some of those funds aren't placed in a reserve for exactly this kind of problem.
Yes, I know about non-millionaires who live on the Barrier Islands. I have a friend who lives in Lavallette, NJ and have seen many small cottage homes. Still, even their property taxes are through the roof. Why doesn't local government plan for such emergencies and have contingency funds for them?
I think the reason is because they know they can come hat-in-hand and ask us to pay to restore their beachfront property, homes, and businesses. If they knew they couldn't get a free lunch from the Feds, what do you think they would do? Now if strangers start calling me up and asking me to spend a week in there beachfront home, I think my attitude would change. Until that happens, I think it's a valid question.
It's the same with New Orleans and Katrina. If you're dumb enough to build your house 8' feet below sea level, doesn't it seem prudent to buy some flood insurance? And if you can't afford the insurance, maybe you should live somewhere else. Expecting FEMA and all the other federal agencies to come in and put your house back in order seems odd to me. My house flooded several years ago and no one from NJ or LA offered to give me money to put my house back in order. Why not? I think the reason is because I was stupid enough to buy flood insurance.
Wasn’t it. the French who built New Orleans below sea level?
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