Associated Press
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) helped lead the attempted coup against House Speaker John Boehner.
If you check out far-right blogs, you might have noticed the scuttlebutt this week about the attempted "coup" against House Speaker John Boehner. Several conservative sites in recent days suggested there was a meaningful, behind-the-scenes effort underway among House Republicans, and Boehner's hold on his gavel was loosening.
We now know, however, that those reports were wrong. There was a little drama, and Boehner won a second term as Speaker by a narrow margin, but his GOP detractors fell short of forcing his ouster.
But before the political world moves on, it's worth pausing to consider the merit of the rumors from recent days -- was there an attempted coup or not? As it turns out, there was. It just wasn't an especially good one.
There were some signs that conservative resistance to Boehner was well-organized, at least by one member who has never been a big fan of the Ohio Republican.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) -- who was recently removed from key committees and supported Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for speaker -- sat on the House floor during the speaker vote brandishing an iPad. A message was displayed on the screen ticking off members of the House Republican Conference he hoped would oppose the sitting speaker. The title of the document: "You would be fired if this goes out."
Accounts vary a bit as to the ringleaders of the anti-Boehner campaign. Politico singles out Huelskamp's efforts, but The Hill's report said Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who was also stripped of his committee assignments by Boehner after the elections, did much of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
Regardless, according to Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), the coup effort had, at one point, "amassed enough Republicans to deny Boehner the gavel on the first ballot."
So what happened?
GOP leaders seemed aware of the effort and quickly lobbied the very members whose names appeared on Huelskamp's iPad. Some, Jones said, "just decided they couldn't go through with it."
But it also stands to reason that the coup might have been more successful if the plotters were better organized.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) told reporters that a member -- whom he would not name -- came up to him on the House floor about 15 minutes before the vote and said "there might be some effort to dissent."
"I said that's exactly what the Democrats would like to see us do," Franks said he told the member.
Asked by a reporter if the effort to depose Boehner was "chaotic and disorganized," Franks replied: "I think that's being charitable."
If those leading the coup waited until 15 minutes before the vote to approach possible allies, it's safe to say the effort was handled in a haphazard way. It's not even clear if the dissenters held a meeting before the vote.
Regardless, the fact that there was any attempt at all may have some lingering effects. For those involved in the coup, I'm reminded of the phrase, "Come at the king, you best not miss." Those who acted against Boehner may find the GOP establishment no longer has any use for them.
As for the Speaker himself, it must have been a discouraging day. After two years in which Boehner's own caucus routinely ignored his attempts at leadership, his first day of the new term led him to confront a vocal group of House Republicans who made it abundantly clear that they reject his authority.
Boehner was already the weakest Speaker in modern times; yesterday only exacerbated his problems
Update: The New York Times reports that the votes against the Speaker from his own caucus were the most in over two decades, and Josh Green reports that the inept Boehner critics hatched their plot at a Capitol Hill bar.
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Why am I not surprised that the Tea Party Caucus could not organize a "Palace Revolt"?
They are so naive that they believe that they were sent to congress by "teh people"!
The tea party is a cult in search of a personality..
Thought experiment...
Just imagine the Congress with a Tea Party speaker...
The Horror...the...horror
Alternately, the "tea party" is the Republican Base, slipping free of their masters. They don't really have an agenda, just angst and the vague sense that they've been shafted by someone.
So far, they still believe that the shafting was done by "liberals" and all those others -- but they're the same people who powered the Progressive and Populist movements of a century ago, so there's always the possibility that they might achieve enlightenment and realize that the shafters are the same plutocratic puppetmasters that they've been serving for so long.
I guess we don't have much choice but to find out, do we?
The tea party is a cult in search of a personality..
Whenever the cult word comes out, I imagine David Koresh...
More like Jim Jones
If only they would....
The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.
-- Richard Hofstadter, 1965
Regardless, according to Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), the coup effort had, at one point, "amassed enough Republicans to deny Boehner the gavel on the first ballot."
So what happened?
Allow me to employ Occam's razor: Jones (R) is full of it.
Actually, I don't think Jones is full of it. I think that the rebellion by the Northeastern Republican Congressmen could have created the momentum to get rid of Boehner, and I think Boehner knew this. It is ONLY after Boehner promised a Sandy vote today that the Northeastern Republicans "got in line".
I think Boehner was using Sandy to keep his Speakership and I think that the speed with which the Northeastern Congressmen caved proves that there was some "back room" dealmaking going on.
Did you notice how Peter King changed his tune? No spine.
the weather channel called for changing wind direction of hurricane strength
Come on now. Do you really think Boehner would have been reelected as Speaker if he hadn't promised a vote on Sandy the day after his vote?
Oooooohhhhh....Intrigue.....Backstabbing.....A rebellion in the ranks....Downtrodden TPer's organize a revolt....
They had everything...Except a candidate. Because really, who the f**k would want Boehners job? Not these jokers - That would mean that they would have to, like, lead, and even they are smart enough to know that they are not capable of that.
Besides, this way they can justify all that kicking and screaming about how oppressed they are, while holding the House, and country, hostage. They know that the GOP needs TP votes or they'll have to rely on Dems to pass bills.
Although...Boehner just did that, and still kept his job. A positive trend.
The President of the United States now has full justification to use whatever means and measures at his disposal to bypass the toxicity and demagoguery of the Republican House in order to keep the government and the country functioning. The GOP has abdicated their role in lawmaking by fleeing from any sense of responsibility or reasonable action in their time as majority in the House. Now with an even more serious deadline approaching that again threatens to push the country into virtual anarchy, conservatives ought to have no position in any negotiations and should be sidelines as much as the Constitution allows. - progressive
There is so little aside from prestige that an opponent to America , and subsequently the president , would enjoy as Speaker . These guerilla fighters are best suited for guerilla tactics .
They are waging a contest they never expected to win , let alone lead . Hit bomb , retreat , when they are forced to retire they will become part of the monarchal corpus dextro , supporting mad Eric Erythema toxicum . At the very least they will be able to retire , many guerilla organizations lack that comforting codicil .
um...okay? huh?
Just alleviating the gnawing dullness with a few play , and playful words .
While Orange Julius is inept....
nobody could do this job with the whack jobs proliferating the GOP House Caucus.
Yet, Boehner will remain a weak speaker and will still suck up to the tea party crowd despite their open rejection and disrespect. This is a time when he could show genuine mettle and courage. But he won't. He's a gutless wonder.
Yesterday, I was so disgusted watching his face pucker up like a big baby on the verge of self pity tears. He felt no empathy for the hurricane victims and I doubt he shed a tear for any of the victims of Sandy Hook. He only cries for himself. Selfish to the end. He deserves wrath and deceit from his own caucus. Well deserves it.
That unpleasant characterization which requires an understanding of a conditional quality in having to respect , and quite possibly enjoy the people you are associating with , both at home , and in a career .
This may be a concept well beyond the dull eyed rep from Ohio who has climbed the compromises of his party to reascend to Speaker of the House . A vanity mud wrestling and internecine affair , contemptuous as it is contentious as I can recall . The cost of our American government being reduced to a variety show between simpering rants amongst drunks , and its cold blooded sociopaths whose entertainment is our suffering .
Hastert may be greater than Boehner , much like a mosquito is greater than a gnat .
Cliff, just because the fixing of the Smithsonian roof was on the list of Sandy repairs--a cost that is arguably essential--it doesn't in any way mean that was the first PRIORITY, you dimwit.
Who told you that was the case? Faux newz? Hannity, maybe? Beck?
Well, job well dumb, Cliff. You did your research.
Interesting rhetorical choice.
"Fixing the roof" is the classic example of an expenditure which you just don't put off even if you're short on money, because delaying it is vastly more expensive. What does a roof leak at the Smithsonian cost? Especially bearing in mind the unique documents held there?
But of course, the Democrats are in favor of fixing the roof. Therefore it must be bad.
Hey Anna, don't be too hard on Cliff (Clavin?); when your side has the consistency of a runny Gouda, the imagination of a stepped on roach, and the mandate of a myopic Klansman... ...wait a minute... maybe you're not being hard enough! [g].
Hey Cliff...go read what CHRIS CHRISTIE said about the 'pork' in the bill. It is NOTHING but a tactic for the GOP to cry 'pork' and it's ACTUALLY something that's needed and under 1% of the total bill...yep YOUR BOY actually called out the 'tactic'. So BLAME THE DEMS when you haven't got a CLUE of what really happened.
FRP -- Delicious prose, my friend, utterly delicious.
post Alfred post
One of them voted for Allen West. Was Virginia Foxx too radical?
It's the Congressional equivalent of voting for Mickey Mouse or someone who's dead.
Sadly not just one, two.
All in all the vote looked to be a real profile in courage.
After the failure of the Tea Party in the last election, the money will move on. The Koch's didn't get to be the Douchbags, yes, capital D, by making poor investments. They hoodwinked a small and ignorant sect of the population to do their bidding and vote against themselves by throwing millions at them.
Who could have foreseen that anarchists and nihilists couldn't organize a viable conspiracy?
Huelskamp is such a whiner and an embarrassment to Kansas. I hope he gets no committee appointments this time around - may he and his teaparty ilk slink into oblivion.
When did the House GOP get the knowledge on how to cast a vote?
Republicans: the Keystone Kops of politics.
I believe the operative phrase to describe these mooks, is @$$ Clown.
The Devil you know..
I guess it only goes to show that Republicants can't even oust their leader in the House; when the day is over and regardless (certainly, by their own standards) of how much potential damage the R(-tard) party can still inflict nationally, their power is waning and the party is dying..
Three cheers!
hip, hip , horay!
These clowns don't know how to run anything properly. Let's start intelligence testing for members of Congress.
"Consider a congressman, then consider an idiot; ah, but I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain, 1872
Divide + conquer. Never fails, to my knowledge.
I refused to be surprised by the fact that those representatives who campaigns are predicated on the ineptitude of the federal government seek chiefly to embody that ineptitude in their governance.
The plotters need to catch pointers from the Klingons.
Me? I'm still horrified that the weepy orange man is 3rd in line for the presidency ... No one else concerned?
I'm concerned!
Jim -- You bet there's concern. But what haunts me far more is the thought that something could happen to POTUS, and then to VPOTUS. I'm not sure we'd survive a non-accidental loss of this particular POTUS. Sectionalism run rampant, neighbor against neighbor, gun sales through the roof, everyone carrying -- no, got to stifle that nightmare.
For all the quasi-humorous snark on MaddowBlog yesterday about letting the Tea Party Confederacy go their own way, it could happen in such an event. Cry, the Beloved Country.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. We could then nuke them as the failed terrorist-supporting fundamentalist state they are.
'Afternoon, TC --
Do you think a secession could happen without an immense amount of violence? Can you see the present-day 'Takers' (Southern red states) giving up their "heritage" of multiple military bases and federal subsidies without objection? I honestly cannot see a scenario in which actual separation would take place without an unimagineable level of financial and human disruption -- no, utter chaos.
The drumbeat of verbal violence from the Cons is heinous and mindless. Arguably it's preferable to the physical violence that would accompany such a separation. That said, a few decades may reduce the numbers of the haters, but I won't be around to witness it.
I suppose, given that update, keeping him is better than the alternative.
The tea Party was a grass roots conservative effort that was co-opted by corporate $$ to serve the ends of big business. While the Tea Party faithful were fed a steady diet of "we believe in your conservative values", those finding the "movement" worked to make regulation and fairness anti-conservative values, paving the way for more disparity, less oversight and higher profits. Until the real Rep. party wakes up and takes a stand for the people they have been elected to lead, the followers of the prophets of greed will continue to drag our country towards a real cliff, one we will be unable to recover from.
The "Tea Party" was astroturf created by the corporate scum to achieve their goals. There was and is nothing "grass roots" about any of them. Other than the morons who believe what they're told.