In a private meeting John Boehner claimed that outside groups aren’t real conservatives, as he escalated his war on tea party groups that’s designed to save his job. The New York Times reported,
While Speaker John A. Boehner was harsh in his public criticism of conservative advocacy groups opposed to a new bipartisan budget deal, his attack on the organizations was even more pointed when he was behind closed doors. “They are not fighting for conservative principles,” Mr. Boehner told rank-and-file House Republicans during a private meeting on Wednesday as he seethed and questioned the motives of the groups for piling on against the plan before it was even made public. “They are not fighting for conservative policy,” he continued, according to accounts of those present. “They are fighting to expand their lists, raise more money and grow their organizations, and they are using you to do it. It’s ridiculous.
Boehner has always known that the right wing groups are involved to make a profit and grow, but he is speaking out now because he sees a chance to blame them for the government shutdown. Speaker Boehner is a master of blaming others, but this situation is unique because he is blaming his fellow conservatives. The hypocrisy is that John Boehner became speaker because of the tea party’s success in 2010. Boehner had no issue with using the tea party to get him the gavel, but now that the tea party has become toxic, the Speaker is breaking out the knives. The Republican establishment is making their next big move against the tea party. Their first move is the redoing of the presidential primary system to make it more difficult for tea party candidates to win the Republican nomination. Phase two is Boehner separating his members from the outside groups. The big message that the Speaker sent was that certain outside groups aren’t going to be able to run wild and kill legislation with nothing more than threats. Rep. Boehner isn’t going to be turning down Koch dollars anytime soon. He is fine with nearly all of the outside groups. Who the Republican Party is really going after is the Jim Demint led Heritage groups, and DeMint’s former PAC, Senate Conservatives Fund. The GOP still needs the ads that the outside groups run during the election season. They are trying to push out the groups who primary incumbents and run ads against Republicans. Boehner made his bed with the tea party, and now he is doing everything in his power to escape it.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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