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.
Exactly
And replace him with...........? Here’s an interesting quesiton. Let Freepers fill in the blank.
No, YOU don't get it. You are sitting there worrying about a 4-point increase in the top tax rate while the entire country has had a 40% tax increase imposed upon them by the higher prices caused by quantitative easing. Forget the damn tax issue and focus instead on the deficit ceiling. Put forth a balanced budget, and refuse to raise the debt limit any further.
This represents the problem with the GOPe - they want to continue to compromise with the enemy instead of fighting on principle. The commies on the left don’t want to compromise. They never do.
Who the he!! came up with this sequestering plan anyway? They should have set it to gut welfare, section 8, HUD, and all the other freeloader programs instead of the military.
If only Boehner had the cojones to walk away.
Sure, the House is adjourned, but they’re staying in DC to take the best final deal—which won’t be good—that Barry deems to give them.
This article may describe some melodrama, but it is not an accurate depiction of the larger picture.
RE: If only Boehner had the cojones to walk away.
The Weeper of the house nearly cried (again) according to this news:
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=DF1EF715-953D-49B7-837A-DE199E5136B2
EXCERPT:
Things were so bad for Speaker John Boehner Thursday night, support for his Plan B tax bill so diminished, the limits of his power with his own party laid bare, that he stood in front of the House Republican Conference and recited the Serenity Prayer.
“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.”
Boehner nearly cried.
How did Boehner cripple himself starting with the “purge”?
The house is a closed society...you can’t alienate one faction without alienating all, i.e, “Who’s next?” As strange as it may seem, apparently a few still have a working set of values.
“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.”
I think your feelings reflect those of many here on Free Republic.
However, I find I have a lot more in common with “Ron Paul supporters” than I do with RINO’s or Democrats.
And before the flames, No I am not a pot head living in my Mon’s basement.
“With no meaningful spending reductions, all the Tax talk, 2%, middle-class crap means nothing.”
I totally agree. I think that continuously.
I tried unsuccessfully to learn specifically what will happen if the fiscal cliff legislation takes effect. That’s very important, as I hear that it’s not really a cliff but a slope but haven’t seen the specifics.
We’ve been led to believe that the fiscal cliff legislation (the Simpson Bowles recipe made into law?) is the disaster option. I’m not so sure. I would like to know the specific cutting and taxing and how they’re phased in.
I’m for letting the cliff happen and for Republicans having the courage to ignore today’s polls.
Nonsense. Boehner's not a democrat, or a liberal or a socialist or any of the rest. He's just a weak, toothless leader who fecklesly turned on his own to appease the left. He was just stupid enough to think that obama really wanted a deal. All nonsense and now I hope the GOP caucus sends him home.
bingo.....just as the GOP crippled themselves by giving the Tea Party the F-U after we put them in power in Congress and gave them a fighting chance for the Senate and WH....
Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid, with Boehner's quiet approval, in order to circumvent the TEA Party freshmen, who refused to go along with the "business-as-usual" debt ceiling compromise in July 2011.
Ron Paul and his "supporters" (as you put it), had nothing to do with Boehner's meltdown. Get over it.
I want to know who this person is and how he has the audacity to say that those opposed to expanding a $16 trillion deficit 'don't get it'.
Typical GOP-E attitude.
The entire article fails to distinguish between national politics and regional. House members are there because of their districts. Many of those districts have no desire for kissing Obama’s butt - which is what Boner’s deal meant.
Boner was worried about national politics. His actions would make sense - IF Mitt Romney was facing election in January. Playing to the middle makes sense in the months before a national election, when the votes of confused and worthless people without principle matter.
No matter what is done, the national media will blame republicans for anything bad that happens for the next 4 years. Boner’s compromise would not have bought him ANY support from the media. Boner still thinks the media has a slight desire to be fair. They don’t.
We need to grow some conservatives between now and 2016 who can explain, in 60 seconds or less, how conservative ideas make everyone’s life better. We won’t do that with a GOP-E guy who changes his opinions more often than his underwear. And we don’t have any national leaders in the GOP right now. We will have to see if any step up to the need. Until then, the GOP house republicans might as well go on representing their districts - as they are supposed to do!
'Super Congress' Idea Floated to Solve Debt Crisis
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly are working on an idea to create a new bipartisan committee to break the debt-ceiling deadlock.
Such a committee, which some label a “Super Congress” and staffers on Capitol Hill are calling a “super committee,” reportedly would have special powers not present in the Constitution now, according to the Daily Mail in London.
Things that they set in motion in the summer of 2011, are now biting them squarely on the butt.
That will be retiring Congressman LaTourette, who went on the morning shows this morning and called his Conservative colleagues "chuckleheads."
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