The good news? The House Speaker isn't contemplating a total Obamnesty surrender as Mitchie The Kid has already offered up. The bad news? He's trying to get to the same place via ten monthly installments instead of Senator McConnell's lump sum.
And House conservatives are having none of it:
Conservatives on Capitol Hill are threatening to replace House Speaker John Boehner if he ducks a fight with the White House over illegal immigration and gives in to political pressure to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, the Hill reports.
Talk of another coup attempt against Boehner "has grown louder," the Hill reports, now that Senate Republicans have backed away from a House bill that blocks DHS from accommodating millions of illegal [aliens].
If Boehner follows the Senate's lead, "it would be a big political mistake," a House conservative speaking on condition of anonymity told the Hill.
Republicans who tried to oust Boehner in January are again strategizing on how to take away his Speaker's gavel, the Hill reports.
From the coupsters' point of view, they have two advantages that they foolishly denied themselves in their farcical attempt to topple Boehner last month: organization and infrastructure, which is simply acknowledging that it is extraordinarily difficult to knock off a sitting House Speaker; and two primary candidate alternatives instead of the eight or nine that beat each other with tire irons at the start of this Congress. And they're both already in the leadership: Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise.
And having disclosed those names, you can see the obvious drawback, as McCarthy is a long time amnesty backer whose tough talk against Obamnesty has only appeared to start this week. And he is the "next in line" in the House GOP hierarchy, so if Boehner did fall, McCarthy would probably end up with the gavel, and conservatives would be worse off than they were before.
Could Scalise leapfrog over McCarthy to the Big Gavel? TPers better hope and pray so. And otherwise remember the Uhura corollary: "Be careful what you wish for; you may just get it."
Far better for Boehner to stand his ground, now against Obama AND....well, Harry (G)Reid via Mitch McConnell, I guess. But he appears to be weakening:
With a DHS shutdown looming, Boehner was said to be eyeing a compromise on Thursday evening between the take-no-prisoners posture of his restive right flank and the more Obama-friendly Senate approach that House conservatives have branded as surrender.
The National Journal, citing "leadership sources," reports that House GOP leaders were floating an interim bill to fund DHS in full, but only for a month, giving Republicans the chance to fight another day.
"Boehner and his allies are concerned that partially closing one of the top national security agencies could do lasting damage to the party," the Hill reports.
Oh, mule fritters. Is anybody else as sick to death of this "lasting damage to the party" quaking as I am? The original government "shutdown" in 1995-96 was going to "do lasting damage to the party"; the GOP retained their majorities the following fall. The impeachment of Bill Clinton was going to "do lasting damage to the party"; the GOP not only retained control of Congress but also regained the White House in 2000. The last government shutdown sixteen months ago was going to "do lasting damage to the party"; the GOP gained nine Senate seats and twelve House seats this past November. The Panic of 2008 did do significant damage to the party, but it wasn't "lasting" - only two years, as a matter of fact.
No, Mr. Speaker, the only "lasting damage to the party" can come from you and your caucus and their Senate counterparts not fulfilling your oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law. Because if you are so craven, so cowardly, such hopeless pussies that you will not fight to the political death a rampaging dictator whom your majorities were specifically elected to stop, then your own base is going to wonder what the point of electing y'all was in the first place.
Oh, I know, I know, what you're really thinking is, "What if there's another 9/11 while DHS is (15%) shut down? We'll get blamed for it! OH MY GOD!!!!" But Mr. Speaker, have you looked at Obama's approval numbers on fighting ISIS and Islamic terrorism in general? Sure, the White House and congressional Dems and the media would try to blame the GOP, but if you are doing what three quarters of the voting public sent you to Washington to do, just how effective do you think that flailing buck-passing is going to be?
Buck up, Johnny. Gin up some self-confidence. Have faith in your party and the American people.
And, for God's sake, learn the first thing about political strategizing. What would kicking the DHS can down the road a month accomplish? You already did that in the lame duck session back in December, remember? "We don't have our Senate reinforcements yet," the base was told, "When they get here next month, we're REALLY gonna rock & roll!" What was the Senate vote on moving ahead with McConnell's el foldo, Mr. Speaker? 98-2. So much for those "reinforcements". And now here we are, two months later, in the same needlessly untenable position.
In other words, what's the point of giving yourselves a chance to "fight another day" when you never fight in the first place? Do you really believe that the conservative grassroots are paying that little attention that we would swallow such a blatant dodge?
And have you considered that all Senate Democrats have to do is filibuster your one-month "clean" DHS extension same as they have been your Obamnesty-defending full-year appropriation, and on the same ostensible "Don't shutdown our security" BS grounds? Every time you cave to Obama and (G)Reid, you reinforce in their minds that all they have to do is wait you guys out, and as the deadline draws near you will eventually capitulate. Thus the GOP never has any deterrent effect from any feint toward any such confrontation.
It's almost as if it's just performance art, kabuki theater to make the base believe you're carrying out our wishes, but in reality you never have any intention of doing so.
That couldn't possibly be the case - could it?
You know what the answer to that question had better be, Mr. Speaker. Your gavel may just depend on it.
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