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Karl Rove: Boehner’s Conservative Legacy. Speaker has achieved far more than his GOP critics have
Wall Street Journal ^ | 10/01/2015 | Karl Rove

Posted on 10/01/2015 2:32:23 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

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To: ziravan

Nonsense. Probably the greatest gift McConnell and Boehner gave us was keeping every GOP Congressman and Senator off the Democratcare vote. That is a gift that has kept on giving for nearly seven plus years and will continue to count in future elections for us.


41 posted on 10/01/2015 3:22:32 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: MichaelCorleone

I guess the rumors of Tokyo Rose having a sex change are true. LOL!


42 posted on 10/01/2015 3:23:54 PM PDT by Jean2 (ox)
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To: Windflier

I don’t love Boehner and he’s not my ideal Speaker, but here’s the rest of the article refute it:

As Republicans’ leader in the House, Mr. Boehner’s record has been impressive. He marshaled united GOP opposition to President Barack Obama’s stimulus and to ObamaCare. He led the GOP House in forcing Mr. Obama in 2011 to agree to spending caps that slashed $2.1 trillion from federal outlays over a decade. This reduced the federal government’s share of the economy from 24% of GDP to 21%—a figure only slightly above its post-World War II average.

When Mr. Obama planned to dramatically increase income and other taxes at the beginning of 2013, Mr. Boehner forced him to keep President George W. Bush’s tax cuts intact for 99% of Americans. All this did far more to shrink Washington than the government shutdown pushed by the speaker’s intraparty critics.

The straight-talking, chain-smoking Ohioan was also the architect of this year’s entitlement reforms. Each year for nearly the past 20, Congress spent time crafting a short-term “doc fix” to stave off mandated cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. Mr. Boehner engineered a permanent solution to the problem and, in the process, passed the first significant reforms in entitlement spending in a decade.

Since his first days in Congress, Mr. Boehner has opposed earmarks as wasteful and corrupting, and he ended their use when he became speaker. A tireless advocate of increasing American exports, he led the House this year in passing trade-promotion authority, which will give the next Republican president a valuable tool to knock down barriers to the sale of U.S. goods and services abroad.

Mr. Boehner has also been a passionate advocate for life. This year he expanded the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortions, to cover community health centers that receive money from Washington. In 2011 he forced Mr. Obama to accept the reinstatement of the ban on using federal dollars for abortions in the District of Columbia.

But Mr. Boehner’s greatest institutional achievement may be the return to regular order in the House. Recent speakers of both parties had centralized power in a handful of legislative leaders. Now bills make their way through subcommittees and committees. Lawmakers work more hours and more days and cast more votes. No longer are 2,000-page behemoths drafted in secret. No longer is the theory, in the immortal words of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “we have to pass the bill so you can find what is in it.”

Coupled with Mr. Boehner’s refusal to use earmarks as carrots was his recognition that the Republican conference sometimes had to be allowed to take a course that he personally thought was destructive, as with the 2013 shutdown. This probably limited how long Mr. Boehner could expect to serve as speaker.

But his successor—and future speakers from both parties—will, at least for some time, be forced by his example to run the House as the Founders intended: from the bottom up, with legislation emerging from the committees, rather than being written and handed down by the speaker’s staff.

No congressional Republican worked harder than John Boehner to create the GOP House majority in 2010 and to maintain it. An indefatigable fundraiser, he spent 220 nights last year on the road, raising money and helping his Republican colleagues win election.

Now that Mr. Boehner is departing, his critics—mostly in the House’s Freedom Caucus—will celebrate. But they cannot shirk, as many of them have in the past, their own responsibility for keeping the GOP in the majority.

Though the Freedom Caucus includes 15% of House Republicans, they represent 36% of the GOP congressmen who have contributed zero dollars to their party’s campaign committee. More than half of Mr. Boehner’s Freedom Caucus critics have fattened their own war chests while doing zip for the GOP’s common cause.

John Boehner is a quiet leader from America’s heartland who got important things done. He can leave the House content that he gave his all and did the right thing—for conservatism, his party and, most important, his country.


43 posted on 10/01/2015 3:27:22 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: SeekAndFind

Someone shake a salt shaker over his head, perhaps he’ll dry up and blow away.


44 posted on 10/01/2015 3:30:54 PM PDT by CincyRichieRich (1984 Now)
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To: 1010RD

As another poster wryly noted, who cares if he washed the dishes before he torched the house?


45 posted on 10/01/2015 3:31:09 PM PDT by Windflier (The pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Windflier

Torched the house? We own the House and the Senate. Let’s talk after a new GOP POTUS is in. I want much more than we’ve gotten, but no FReeper has shown the way to do that in a realistic, achievable way. It’s ignorant to not recognize what’s good. We’re winning. Stop ignoring that.


46 posted on 10/01/2015 3:32:59 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: SeekAndFind

Puff boy or pink cheeks, the guy is a real POS.


47 posted on 10/01/2015 3:35:46 PM PDT by drypowder
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To: MichaelCorleone

I don’t think what Karl is smoking is medicinal.


48 posted on 10/01/2015 3:36:06 PM PDT by Yogafist
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To: stephenjohnbanker; All
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
49 posted on 10/01/2015 3:51:55 PM PDT by mkjessup (If you really support Ted Cruz, don't be trashing Trump, Cruz doesn't, why should you?)
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To: SeekAndFind

They will pay a price in more than money. The GOP can wave good-by to America forever if they are successful.


50 posted on 10/01/2015 3:52:02 PM PDT by AdaGray
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To: mkjessup

LOL....What a PRO(stitute)


51 posted on 10/01/2015 3:58:09 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: SeekAndFind

Of course he achieved more than his critics! He would not allow anything from his critics to come forward unless he was assured that it would not pass. Yes! he caved on everything. He sold out on everything. There is nothing republican about him other than he reflects the attitude and willingness to get things done just like the rest of the establishment party. Democrat lite. No conscience, morale compass, integrity or spine. A true eRepublican.

So! let’s run another McCain, Romney or whatever libtards eRepublican we can find. Then we can blame the Tea Party once more for the failure of the GOP. (sorry for the rant)


52 posted on 10/01/2015 4:03:01 PM PDT by dirtymac
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To: Windflier

“... who cares if he washed the dishes before he torched the house?”

John’s a real gentleman. No matter how drunk he gets, he takes the dishes out of the sink before he pees in it.


53 posted on 10/01/2015 4:06:33 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: SeekAndFind

How quickly he has fallen from “Rove you magnificent bastard” to “Rove you ignorant slut!”


54 posted on 10/01/2015 4:22:16 PM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: 1010RD
Boehner is a GOPe hack, but credit him with those things he’s done well.
So says the GOPe hacks.
55 posted on 10/01/2015 4:23:33 PM PDT by lewislynn (Meghan Kelley...#sand--Rosie, the Don was right-- Hillary, lipstick on a pig)
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To: SeekAndFind

Has Tokyo Rove blown Soetoro more than Reggie?


56 posted on 10/01/2015 4:23:54 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution.)
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To: lewislynn

They should know. Sadly, there a lot of simpletons who always see the glass half full or the missing tile.


57 posted on 10/01/2015 4:45:39 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: SeekAndFind

.
Achieved much.....for the other side!
.


58 posted on 10/01/2015 4:46:49 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: SeekAndFind

A confirmed enemy of the people


59 posted on 10/01/2015 4:58:13 PM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: 1010RD

“Let’s not ignore the good he’s done. Boehner is a GOPe hack, but credit him with those things he’s done well.”

Nobody has done so little with so much. Boner is, was, and always will be, a pussy.


60 posted on 10/01/2015 5:26:16 PM PDT by WMarshal (Either the mess gets fix or the Democrat Party and the Republican Parties will implode.)
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