Headline of the Night: Boehner's Grip Slips

[Scurrilous]

No Vote Tonight: Boehner's Grip Slips.

<snip>

"The signs were there all day, if reporters wanted to hear them. When we asked -- and oh, we asked -- if Republicans would get the 217 votes they needed to move forward on John Boehner's two-stage debt plan, we were never told "yes." We were told that the votes weren't there yet, but they would be. When would they be? We'd see. For most of the day, we were expecting a vote at some point between 5:45 and 6:30. And then, the vote was delayed.

The Republican dilemma quickly revealed itself. In other situations where a majority party needed to grind out a few final votes, it called on members who agreed with the concept of legislation but quibbled with the text. When Harry Reid needed to get to 60 votes for the health care law, he knew Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson wanted to hand the president a victory, and wanted to expand health care coverage, but had a couple of concessions in mind. When Nancy Pelosi needed the final votes for the Senate's health care bill, she could appeal to progressives like Dennis Kucinich and pro-life liberals like Bart Stupak, because they wanted a health care bill, too.

John Boehner and Eric Cantor couldn't sell their Republicans in the same way. Their diehards never wanted to raise the debt limit. They had supported a strict, doomed version of a debt ceiling deal, Cut, Cap, and Balance, which did that, but even then, they weren't really comfortable with the concept of what they were doing. They did not want to raise the debt limit. Their constituents were uncomfortable with the idea, at first. And now they were being asked to raise the limit, without the conditions they liked, because... why? Because they were told that failing to do so would give Barack Obama all the leverage in the debt fight. That was too clever by half for some Republicans. More than 24 Republicans, it seemed.

Tonight, reporters stalked outside the offices of Boehner and Cantor as members walked in and out for meetings. This wasn't like health care, or even the continuing resolution. We were watching diehard conservatives, who had never wanted to raise the debt limit, and who had never done so in their careers, being begged for votes. As the night dragged on, the visitors did not look like the sort who could cave on big, existential votes. Louie Gohmert, one of the diehards who believes that Tim Geithner is lying about the threat of default, was dragged in. Tim Scott, the co-president of the freshman class, was dragged in; he walked out nonplussed, walked past reporters, and took out his iPod earbuds to confirm he was a "no." Roscoe Bartlett, an octogeniaran, who's not usually counted on for tough votes, entered the hot room telling reporters he didn't want to choose between "bad and really bad." The farce peaked when Gohmert joined freshman Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., for a prayer session in the House's chapel. It can't be good when members of Congress are literally asking for salvation."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2011/07/28/no_vote_tonight_boehner_s_grip_slips_.html