Boehner Elected Speaker - Not A Good Start For The New Congress

During the past four years John Boehner, as Speaker of the House, presided over the largest spending & borrowing binge in the country's history – in essence he gave BO most of the money that has expanded big government & increased the national debt to record levels.  Democrat pollster Pat Caddell recently found that 60% of Republicans who voted last November did not want Boehner reelected Speaker because he is considered ineffective in representing the values of the majority of Republicans.  In brief Boehner has done a lousy job.

 

Caddell's poll also found that only 16% wanted "both" Boehner & KY Senator Mitch McConnell to be their leaders in Congress & that @ least one quarter to a third of those polled are ready to leave the GOP & form a third party.  Both men being elected to their respective leadership posts provides a bad start for this newly elected Republican controlled Congress.

 

Boehner had some difficulty becoming Speaker of the House in 2012 & that difficulty only increased on Tuesday – but not enough because he was voted Speaker receiving 216 out of the 408 votes cast in another low turn-out election.  Politicians like Boehner always need low turnouts to win.  In this case the 27 no-shows were either attending the Cuomo funeral in NY, delayed by the weather, or had resigned, in the case of Michael Grimm after pleading guilty to a single count of felony tax fraud.

 

Below is the list of the 25 Republican lawmakers who did not vote for Boehner – if your congressmen is not on this list they voted for Boehner (Boehner, Carter (TX), Gowdy, Nunnelee, & Young (AK) did not vote):

Justin Amash (R-Mich.) 
Brian Babin (R-Texas) 
Rod Blum (R-Iowa)
Dave Brat (R-Va.)
Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.)
Curt Clawson (R-Fla.)
Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.)
Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.)
Scott Garrett (R-N.J.)
Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.)
Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)
Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.)
Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.)
Walter Jones (R-N.C.)
Steve King (R-Iowa)
Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)
Mark Meadows (R-N.C.)
Richard Nugent (R-Fla.)
Gary Palmer (R-Ala.)
Bill Posey (R-Fla.)
Scott Rigell (R-Va.)
Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.)
Randy Weber (R-Texas)
Daniel Webster (R-Fla.)
Ted Yoho (R-Fla.)

But the dirty pool gets worse.  There were six out of the fourteen freshmen Republicans who had campaigned on dissatisfaction with the Republican leadership & had promised not to support Boehner for Speaker  – yet in their first ever House vote they broke their word.

On his RedState blog Eric Erickson provided this list of six freshmen Republicans who lied during the campaign about voting against Boehner as Speaker:

LIAR: Jody Hice of Georgia

Hice said he would support "new leadership, and new leadership with a backbone," over Boehner.

LIAR: Barry Loudermilk of Georgia

"He will not support Boehner as speaker," spokesman Dan McLagan said.

LIAR: Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin

"I would have no problem looking for an alternative to Speaker Boehner," Grothman said...

LIAR: John Ratcliffe of Texas

'There are other people I would support and think would be a better choice than Boehner'

LIAR: Mark Walker of North Carolina

"[Walker] said he hoped the conference would instead back Rep. Trey Gowdy for Speaker."

LIAR: Alex Mooney of West Virginia

[Mooney] signed [a] pledge promising "to vote against the current leadership..."

In addition you can add to this freshman list of disappointments Mia Love who also voted for Boehner.  Love is the first black female Republican elected to the House after being endorsed by FreedomWorks, Tea Party Express, & Sarah Palin.  Love gave a speech @ the 2012 Republican National Convention & was thought to be a rising star in the party although she lost her race that November by a very narrow margin in conservative Utah before winning in 2014.

 

Without these seven votes Boehner still would have won but barely - thereby making the vote closer with the chance of sending the election of Speaker into a second round – a small moral victory.  It is getting late in our Republic for moral victories though – isn't it?

 

Reference Post after 2010 midterm election:  Only 21 Of 87 Freshman House Republicans Are Still With You