Don’t celebrate yet!: Why Boehner won’t really ditch the right-wing nutjobs.

[Mass]

Brian Beutler is correct. The war within the GOP is not about ideology. It is about tactics and strategy.

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/13/dont_celebrate_yet_why_boehner_wont_really_ditch_the_right_wing_nutjobs/

Don’t celebrate yet!: Why Boehner won’t really ditch the right-wing nutjobs
Yes, the speaker lashed out a bit this week. But in the long run, he agrees with the far right more than you think

...
Depending whom you ask, House Speaker John Boehner’s public divorce this week from the conservative advocacy shops that bullied him into a government shutdown two months ago, and the subsequent House passage of a Bipartisan Budget Act, portends a huge sellout (baaad), or a huge sellout (good!).

The underlying theory is identical, but the question of whether it’s a positive or lamentable development depends on your ideological allegiances. By declaring himself free from the consequences of transgressing influential conservative scorekeepers — “I don’t care what they do,” Boehner said Thursday — he has widened the potential scope of legislative politics in 2014. If those guys don’t matter — if he feels free to cross them at this juncture — it creates coalition-building opportunities that were unthinkable a week or a month ago.
...
I don’t want to suggest that Boehner’s eruption at these hard-line groups was a non-event. It was clearly a big departure for him, at least temperamentally. But Boehner’s not a Democrat and he’s not a liberal. It remains true that the biggest differences on the right are strategic, not substantive. And I think the poisonous environment in the conservative movement — and specifically the bad blood between GOP leaders and groups like Heritage Action — has obscured the fact that in many instances the two factions’ incentives still align.
...
When has John Boehner, DOMA defender, ever voluntarily struck a blow for LGBT equality? Or for stimulus spending on poor people. Boehner has policy objectives and political imperatives of his own, and they’re not so different from those on the professional right, even if as speaker he can’t be quite as boorish as they are about pursuing them.

I yearn to be proven wrong. But if anything, I think his willingness to go all Bulworth on the right this week will mainly help clarify that in most instances Boehner’s not some RINO who only ever does conservatives’ bidding because he’s afraid of incurring their wrath.

So, enjoy the show, and what will probably be the next show, a battle between Cantor and Ryan to become the next speaker (none of them is my idea of an attractive speaker, but the media will go for Ryan for some obscure reason). This may be fun to watch. But do not expect anything good to come from this change by Boehner.

[Mopar151]

1. Cantor and Ryan for speaker??

&quot none of them is my idea of an attractive speaker, but the media will go for Ryan for some obscure reason). " Has to do with the creepiness/skezziness quotient - Ryan's not high on the scale on a personal basis - it's his idology that's nasty. Cantor, OTOH, lights up all the creep indicators, except maybe the ones Boehner owns.

[Mass]

3. I disagree on that.

Ryan is really creepy too and just as conservative as Cantor.

[Mass]

2. Boehner claims freedom from tea party moments before blocking vote on unemployment insurance

Good example here

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/12/1262250/-Boehner-claims-freedom-from-tea-party-moments-before-blocking-vote-on-unemployment-insurance#

Boehner claims freedom from tea party moments before blocking vote on unemployment insurance

Via Greg Sargent, House Speaker John Boehner slamming tea party groups on Thursday morning moments before heading to the House floor to block a vote on extending emergency unemployment benefits:

“Frankly I think they’re misleading their followers. I think they’re pushing our members in places where they want to be. And frankly I just think they’ve lost all credibility,” he told reporters at his weekly press conference Thursday. [...]
“You know, they pushed us into this fight to defund Obamacare and shut down the government,” he said. “It wasn’t exactly the strategy I had in mind. [...]”

Asked if he thinks the groups should “stand down,” Boehner said, “I don’t care what they do.”

As Greg notes, this is really a ridiculous display from Boehner.
First of all, even though it's true that tea partiers pushed for the defund Obamacare/government shutdown fight, it's equally true that Boehner decided to support their position. Don't forget, he had a choice in the matter: As speaker of the House, he could have allowed a vote that would have prevented the shutdown from ever happening—but he refused, because he was afraid of the tea party. And that makes him every bit as responsible as they were.

Second, if Boehner is trying to declare his independence from the tea party, it's going to take more than a sound bite or two criticizing them in order to demonstrate it. Words are cheap—he needs to show some action, and this budget deal does not represent action.

If Boehner wants people to believe that something has really changed, then why are they blocking a vote on extending emergency unemployment insurance? Why aren't they allowing a vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act? What about immigration reform? Why, in the very same press conference, did he once again talk about repealing Obamacare and getting to the bottom of Benghazi?

Boehner wants the media to believe the GOP has changed—that it's become grown up and responsible. They might report what he wants, but for it to be true, he needs to deliver more than press conference theatrics—he needs to deliver substantive change. And so far, he hasn't done it.

[stuartsdesk1]

4. Boehner's New Strategy - Anti-stupid Training Classes

John Boehner (aka John Orangytan Beaner) has a new strategy -

Special classes for his Republican colleagues on how to avoid saying
stupid things in public (they're still allowed to think stupidities) -

See http://stuartsdesk.com

[Gman]

5. I see it as nothing more than the biennial move to the center

The GOP has done since Gingrich. They do their dirty work in off election years and act sane in election years. This cycle has been disrupted the last couple of election cycles by crazies who don't agree with that strategy. Hence their failure to make any kind of gains, although there are plenty of other reasons. This strategy at least is a way to avoid self inflicted wounds. And make no mistake. This is all about strategy and NOT real ideological moves to the center.