GOP Cabal Ready to Unseat Boehner: Sources

[Purveyor]

Source: Newser

(NEWSER) – Was the fiscal cliff deal John Boehner's last stand? Washington has long rumbled with reports that conservatives are ready to oust the House speaker, and now sources tell Breitbart that enough Republicans are ready to do it—provided they can find someone else to take the job. "At least 20 House Republican members have gotten together, discussed this, and want to unseat Speaker Boehner," a spokesman for the conservative group American Majority Action says. "That's more than enough to get the job done."

The problem, the group said, is that these malcontents need a leader to rally behind. Eric Cantor is widely seen as a potential candidate, particularly given his opposition to the cliff deal.

Read more: http://www.newser.com/story/160263/gop-cabal-ready-to-unseat-boehner-sources.html

[atreides1]

1. Eric Cantor

Makes Iago look like Othello's best friend!

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Well, at least I would assume Cantor would go for gun control.

Last edited Wed Jan 2, 2013, 07:18 PM - Edit history (1)

His specialty is the knife in the back.

[beardedcollie]

11. You are brilliant, Jackpine Radical

Good One!

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

18. Heh. That funny.

[unblock]

2. democrats should offer to vote for boner.

if boner and a couple dozen of his supporters agree, then boner keeper the speakership and the tea baggers heads all explode!

it's all the same to democrats, we're getting a dirt bag republican as speaker either way. but this way, we pour fuel on the internecine republican fire!

[Purveyor]

4. But Cantor is such a slimeball we might want him out there 'front and center' just to expose

him to the voting public.

Hard call either way...

[Lochloosa]

12. Democrats have no say in this fight. This is for the leader of the Repug party in the House.

[starroute]

14. The Speaker is not the GOP leader -- and Democrats do have a say

All the Constitution says is "The House of Representatives shall chuse [sic] their Speaker..." The Speaker is not the Majority Leader and is elected by a vote of all members of the House.

According to Wikipedia, "The House of Representatives elects the speaker of the house on the first day of every new Congress, and also in the event of the death or resignation of an incumbent Speaker. The incumbent Clerk of the House of Representatives requests nominations: there are normally two, one from each major party (each party will have previously met to decide on its nominee). The Clerk then calls the roll of the Representatives-elect, each Representative-elect indicating the surname of the candidate he or she is supporting. Representatives-elect are not restricted to voting for one of the nominated candidates: they may vote for any person, even for someone who is not a member (or member-elect) of the House at all. They may also abstain by voting 'present'."

In addition, "It is expected that members of the House vote for their party's candidate. If they do not do so, they usually vote for someone else in their party or vote "present". Those who vote for the other party's candidate often face serious consequences, up to and including the loss of seniority. The last major instance where a representative voted for the other party's candidate was in 2000, when Democrat Jim Traficant of Ohio voted for Republican Dennis Hastert. In response, the Democrats stripped him of his seniority and he lost all of his committee posts."

So it might be unprecedented, but there's nothing to prevent members of the minority from deciding to sway the outcome if the majority is divided.

[leftyohiolib]

17. oh good the source is wiki - well give me a few minutes then check again

[unblock]

16. not necessarily true.

the speaker is determined by a majority of member of the house, regardless of party.
it tends to be the choice of the majority party only because usually they decide among themselves and the losing side agrees to support the majority party's majority choice.

however, there's no rule that says a minority party can't play kingmaker as often happens in parliamentary systems.

[BlueCaliDem]

26. The Speaker is voted on by the entire *House, not just the majority party.

How the Speaker is chosen

As the highest-ranking member of the House, the Speaker is elected by a vote of the members of the House. While it is not required, the Speaker usually belongs to the majority political party. The Constitution does not require that the Speaker be an elected Member of Congress. No non-member has ever been elected Speaker.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/speaker.htm

[MADem]

21. That is not how it works. nt

[unblock]

22. it is if we can fracture the republican party ;)

[MADem]

23. I don't know if there's that much appetite for meddling with them.

I get the sense that they'll screw themselves if we are just patient...

[Volaris]

30. It depends. All you need to secure the Speakership is a simple Majority of TOTAL votes,

not Party Votes. If they screw this up and split the GOP vote total by enough, and Dem's vote in lockstep, that gavel COULD go back to Nancy.

And THAT would be such a humiliating defeat for them, that the Republican Electorate ('specially the 'Baggers) would NEVER forgive them.

Just think of all the FUN we could have with 2 years of SPEAKER PELOSI controlling what gets put up for a Vote in a GOP-Majority House, with a White House all on a tear to demostrate how much actual ass-kicking the Executive Office is capable of when it wants to.

Ahhh, Good Times lol, Good Times...

(on edit) If there's ONE person with the demonstrated skill to actually pull off RUNNING that kind of in-House circus, (yes, that's a bad pun there) it's Nancy. No, not all of everything that gets done will be to our liking under that scenerio, but shit WILL get done. Nobody knows how to count votes better, and pretty much NO ONE on our side will be dumb enough to fuck around and piss her off.

[unblock]

31. that's extraordinarily unlikely as it requires some republicans to vote for pelosi.

pelosi might manage a plurality of votes if the republicans are split, but not an absolute majority.

realistically, the most democrats can hope to do is play kingmaker among republicans choices (and even that's not particularly likely).

[Volaris]

32. If the Republicans are split enough (I think the threshold is 17 or so),

that plurality is all she would need. That small margin is what makes this such a dangerous game for Cantor. He can try it, but if he screws it up by even a small %age, he screws it up HUGE. If this actually IS the game he's playing at, there's NO room for error.

Realistacally, I agree with you, and Kingmaker IS the easy hand to play. But I would bet that the Dem Caucus is thinking REALLY hard about the probabilities of landing an inside straight on this one. If they manage to pull it off, it will sure as HELL go down as one of the greatest political manuevers of Congressional History. You can't tell me they aren't temped. =)

[unblock]

35. the only way pelosi can become speaker is with some republican votes for her

and that ain't happening.

if republicans split and pelosi winds up with more votes than either boner or cantor, then they vote again and keep voting again until someone has an absolute majority.

pelosi regaining the speakership while republicans have a majority is not an inside straight. it's not even hitting a royal flush. it's simply not in the cards.

[mike_c]

5. Canter is an extremist and extremists cannot govern in the face of checks and balances...

...so I seriously doubt that the House GOP will make Canter its Speaker-- but they continually surprise me, so who knows, maybe it will happen. But for all his extreme partisanship, Eric Canter will still be unable to govern, only obstruct, so his tenure as Speaker will only hasten the demise of the GOP.

I get a warm and fuzzy contentment when I contemplate the demise of the GOP.

[lunatica]

19. I get a little surge of hope

Their present form needs to be demised big time.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. The only way to make a political minority be a minority is bipartisonship.

If Boehner made an honest outreach to democrats to vote him in again as Speaker and he held his end of the bargain by brokering a more honest compromise for future legislation and procedure, the Tea Party and Eric Cantor would lose whatever political clout they've enjoyed for the past two years. They would again be fringe if they were rejected by their party.

[ewagner]

7. Ummmmmm...look at the source of the story...

Breitbart?

don't they belong to the "We just make this shit up!" crowd?

[starroute]

15. Yeah, but they're also the "we're actively egging on the Tea Party" crowd

So on something like this, you can expect that they're acting as a mouthpiece for the would-be mutineers. Which at least gives them the inside scopp.

[Thav]

8. If Cantor got in, then we might as well shut down congress for two years

As even less than the last two years would get done.

[marble falls]

9. He'll stay in power and the real GOP will step away from the Teapublicans and Teabillies. Curious...

McConnell and Biden could discover so much common ground at 11:59:59pm. Maybe Urtle feels Ashley Judd breathing down his neck. He'll retire and cash in his multi million dollar campaign chest. Then he'll become a lobbyist or a 'fellow' at a right wing Koch funded "think tank".

[johnnyplankton]

10. We at the Fishington Cheesington Post have anticipated Boehner's nexy move - a massive bender!

Boehner Planning To Go On “Epic Bender” Say Aides

Washington, DC, January 2nd, 2012 - Following a humiliating year which has his role as Speaker of the House in jepoardy, John Boehner is “looking forward to really tying on the feed bag to blot out all memories of the past year” according to aides.

[link:http://www.fishandcheese.com/wordpress/

[railsback]

13. Breitbart.

LoL.

C'mon.

[DCBob]

20. Why does it only take 20 members to unseat a Speaker??

Doesnt make sense.

[yellowcanine]

24. Best outcome would be for Cantor to take on Boehner and fall short.

Which is why he probably won't do it. Cantor is a cowardly weasel. He won't go against Boehner unless he is sure of winning.

[kimbutgar]

25. Or how about Nancy Pelosi

Norman Goldman said that if Nancy could peel away 25 republicans who will vote for her with the promise of her giving them some important committee assignments. Surely there are some rats willing to jump the sinking GOP ship. Wouldn't it delicious to see the heads at fox and rush explode!

[Purveyor]

27. Rumor now on Bashir: Ron Meyer suggesting that Boehner to resign as Speaker this evening.

Martin and Richard Wolffe extremely skeptical but you read it here first.

This Ron Meyer is with the American Majority Action group.

[onenote]

33. Okay, I read it here first. So what. It wasn't true.

Meyer is the guy that predicted only 50 repubs would vote for the fiscal cliff deal. The right answer: 85. So I wouldn't put much faith in this guy's vote counting skills.

[Purveyor]

34. I said it was a fucking 'rumor'. What part of the word 'rumor' do you not understand ? eom

[onenote]

36. Chill out. I wasn't attacking you.

[tanyev]

28. It wasn't easy for Cantor to rig up the speaker's seat with a hidden catapult,

but boy, is he looking forward to pushing that button.

[Trajan]

29. Say Boehner struck a deal with the Democrats ....

He and other moderate GOP joins their block, allowing Democrats to craft, submit and pass 'centrist' legislation, and completely bypass the Tea Party caucus in the process ....

The only way Boehner can keep the speakership is to ally with the Democrats and a moderate block of GOP .....

Otherwise, he is gone, and the Tea Party numbskulls take control of the GOP House Leadership, further destroying the GOP brand and driving them deeper into the muck ....

Either way; It's a pretty humiliating situation for the Grand Olde Pariahs ....

(FYI: I am not advocating 'centrist' policies - just noting the possibilities ...)