Democrats are showing who’s really in charge of the House by vowing to protect John Boehner from the tea party coup that is building to overthrow him.
A number of right-wing Republicans, long-wary of Boehner’s commitment to GOP efforts attacking President Obama’s policy priorities, have openly considered a coup in an attempt to transfer the gavel into more conservative hands.
But Democrats from across an ideological spectrum say they’d rather see Boehner remain atop the House than replace him with a more conservative Speaker who would almost certainly be less willing to reach across the aisle in search of compromise. Replacing him with a Tea Party Speaker, they say, would only bring the legislative process — already limping along — to a screeching halt.
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“I think it would pose a real existential dilemma for us,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). “I mean, on the one hand, if you have a chance to take out a Republican Speaker, why wouldn’t you do that? On the other hand, if the obvious alternative is a Tea Party Speaker, now you’ve got to worry not only about your own political situation but frankly about the institution.
“I think that would give very serious pause to the Democrats.”
Whatever benefit that Democrats may get from watching Boehner go down would quickly be erased by the reality of a more conservative Speaker of the House provoking endless confrontations and crisis with the Senate and President Obama. The government would be in an even bigger perpetual state of crisis than it is right now.
John Boehner needs House Democrats. The current dynamic in the House is very beneficial for Democrats. Each House Republican manufactured crisis plays out the same way. Tea partiers provoke a crisis. Boehner gives them what they want. The Senate eventually sides with Democrats and the president, and Boehner is forced to rely on Pelosi and the Democrats to prevent a political disaster.
In a body where the majority rules with an iron fist, House Democrats would be crazy to give up their leverage. John Boehner’s inability to govern has given Democrats an influential voice. On key votes, Democrats have the power to make or break Boehner. They are much better served by keeping the fractured Republican majority in place than they would be by a more unified Republican caucus under a new Speaker of the House.
Boehner, like Mitch McConnell in the Senate, is incapable of getting anything important done on his own. Boehner needs the Democrats, and he will owe them even more if the save his tanned hide from torch and pitchfork wielding tea party.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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