by JASmius
Never, according to Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-KS1). Which is not the "all for one, one for all" vote of confidence that it ought to be:
Should I be laughing or gagging uncontrollably that Huelskamp defines "guts" as one's willingness to decapitate one's own leadership? But fine, let's entertain his premise. I seem to recall that House Republicans' biggest problem with Newt Gingrich was his "me-me-me-ist" self-promotion and glory-hogging more than it was incipient RINOism. In 1995 Newt thought he was Bill Clinton's status equal; after Sick Willie sucked him dry in the '95-'96 Shutdowngeddon he suffered "significant shrinkage"; and after Mr. Bill was easily re-elected, he came to be "charmed" by him. Perhaps this degeneration was an indication that Newt wasn't suited to a leadership post - his run at Mitt Romney from the tactical left for the GOP presidential nomination last year certainly reinforces that notion - but I don't think he ever stopped being a bona fide conservative.
Nobody can credibly call John Boehner a grandstander. I can't begin to guess what Newt would have done in his shoes the last three years because you'd have to define which Newt you were invoking, but this Speaker has been solid as a rock in as unenviable a position as I've ever seen a GOP leader. Consider: In front of him he faces a president that in every fundamental (non-birth-certificate-related) sense isn't an American - hell, even Clinton was willing to negotiate (and run rings around his Republican opponents) - and is far more thuggish dictator than American Chief Executive, something no congressional leader has ever before encountered. And behind him he has a Tea Party brigade that is just as eager to shiv him in his hexagonal ribs as O and Reid are to disembowel him face to face for "failing" to achieve the impossible on ObamaCare, even though he has "fought, fought, fought" as hard and as valiantly as any TPer could have in his position.
And in those three words we get to the crux of the issue, in my estimation. The reason the "class of 2010" doesn't have the "guts" to betray Speaker Boehner is that none of them want his job. For which, on the one hand, I commend them for their implicit candor and acuity, and on the other, cannot fail to notice the cowardice that finds it easier to sit in the back of the room cat-calling and throwing spitballs than step up into a position of great responsibility for bigger things than keeping a particular caucus faction happy.
Such as the US government's credit rating - already downgraded once during the 2011 Debtageddon - being put on downgrade watch again. Something that cannot be a deterrent at this point, but is still something that has to be figured into the equation for a leader as a opposed to a camera-grabbing backbencher. The least TPers like Huelskamp could do is acknowledge it.
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