Courtesy of Talking Points Memo:
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Thursday held firm in his criticism of outside conservative groups after a war of words Wednesday, questioning their credibility and saying they've gone "over the line" for attacking a budget deal brokered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).
"Frankly I think they're misleading their followers. I think they're pushing our members in places where they want to be. And frankly I just think they've lost all credibility," he told reporters at his weekly press conference Thursday. "There comes a point when people step over the line. When you criticize something and you have no idea what you're criticizing, it undermines your credibility."
Boehner was visibly agitated with the conservative groups, who are influential among House Republicans and are pushing lawmakers to vote against the bill set to come up Thursday.
"Yesterday, when the criticism was coming, frankly I thought it was my job and my obligation to stand up for conservatives here in the Congress who want more deficit reduction," he said. "Stand up for the work that Chairman Ryan did."
Boehner didn't mention any by name, but the conservative advocacy organizations who have gone against him include Club For Growth, Heritage Action and FreedomWorks.
"This budget bill gets us more deficit reduction than what we have under the Budget Control Act," he said. "I came here to cut the size of government -- that's exactly what this bill does. And why conservatives wouldn't vote for this -- or criticize the bill -- is beyond any recognition I could come up with."
"You know, they pushed us into this fight to defund Obamacare and shut down the government," he said. "It wasn't exactly the strategy I had in mind. But if you recall, the day before the government re-opened, one of the people at one of these groups stood up and said, 'well we never really thought it would work.' Are you kidding me?"
Asked if he thinks the groups should "stand down," Boehner said, "I don't care what they do."
I heard somebody the other day, it may have been Luke Russert, say that if this keeps up, and the establishment Republicans stick to heir guns, that there may be a mas exodus of Tea Party types who will leave. And that if that happened it would completely change the landscape for the 2014 and 2016 elections.
Personally I don't think that right now there is ANYTHING as entertaining right now as watching the Republicans stab each other in the back.
Queen Heifer would do well to read the last sentence of paragraph two.
ReplyDelete"When you criticize something and you have no idea what you're criticizing, it undermines your credibility."
ReplyDeleteJust like these guys have treated the president since he was elected. Just like they decided they were going to oppose anything he did before even waiting to see what kind of president he was going to be. Just like they demagogued every initiative of his, even those based on their, or bipartisan ideas. They've never given him the benefit of the doubt, never any grace or fairness. They've questioned his legitimacy. They made the first black president go through extraordinary measures to "show his papers" and prove he was an American, and still it wasn't good enough. Meanwhile their hero is a Canadian-born son of a man who fought for communist Castro. They've let rabid attack dogs like Palin slander, lie and fearmonger for money, attention and power whenever there was an opening. So now that these people they've radicalized threaten the future of their own party they want to shut them down? Not gonna happen assholes.
They've done an absolutely brilliant job of engineering their own destruction. Who says they haven't accomplished anything this year?
DeleteSo many of the Republicans have been traitors and have committed treason since President Obama was elected.
DeleteWe should treat them like other countries and line them up against a wall!
John Boehner has not represented our country well as Speaker of the House. He should be fired from the job and not reelected when his time is up
He is a joke to Americans as well as being a well known alcoholic! He is a disgrace!
Exactly. Frankenstein finally has his fill of his own monster, now that it's no longer useful to him, but it's going to be impossible to destroy -- thanks to all the power Frank has been giving it for five years. It's funny how what Frankie accuses the teabaggers of doing to the Republican leadership are exactly what the latter has done to President Obama.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a reduction per say, they made sure to restore defense spending by siphoning from federal retirement and a raise in air travel fees.
ReplyDeleteNot at all impressed w/the gal that worked w/Ryan on this bullshit Budget. She gave in far more than did he! I hope the Senate stops the Budget!
DeleteWill they kiss and make up...?....maybe now these newly-weds will push each other off the cliff......we can only hope....
ReplyDeleteToo little, too late Weepy. You could have prevented the destruction of the GOP by doing the right thing and working with this president responsibly. You undermined your own credibility by becoming the RW doormat.
ReplyDeleteSheesh
"if this keeps up, and the establishment Republicans stick to heir guns, that there may be a mas exodus of Tea Party types who will leave."
ReplyDeleteUh, no, I don't think they're going to give up and leave. I don't think they're stupid enough to believe they can do any damage as a third party. What I foresee is establishment 'pubs getting primaried in droves by teapeople, with some of them winning and then getting demolished when only the craziest come out to vote for them in the general.
The only way I see this being averted is if the Koch's wake up and realize there's a good chance of Dems running the entire show unless they put up some large money to shore up the establishment and drive out the lunatics.
OR the establishment 'pubs are the ones who make the exodus and attempt to rebrand themselves, hoping for the best.
OR they all just run as Democrats. LOL
None of which will mean a damned thing if we Democrats don't come out in droves on election days.
DeleteThings that make you go hmmmm. Something is up, something is fishy. In the past few days Boehner has started being reasonable, it's a 180 from where he has been. Perhaps just trying to save face or positioning for the next election....not sure, but I don't trust any of it.
ReplyDeleteAll of a sudden Bohner (sic) has had a 'come to Jesus' moment?! Yeah, RIGHT! (And I have a bridge to nowhere to sell you guys...)
ReplyDeleteHe simply saw the writing on the wall and realized that if he keeps on going the way he has the last five years, he will be out of a job, in company of many of his colleagues.
Boehner woke up and smelled the funk. The tea party were "FINE" for years, and now he's finally pissed? Sorry, drunk weeping orange man, you bought them, you own them. Chlamydia has a higher rating than Congress, he just wants to save his "man sized gavel",
ReplyDeletePass the Popcorn, let the bloodletting begin!
And tea party has a higher approval rating than Obama!
DeleteCouresy a new Gallup poll!
Boner has been a horrid House Speaker of the US Congress...he could have come out against the Teabagger group a long, long time ago and didn't! Now, all of a sudden he's hollering at them. What friggin' bullshit! All in time for the elections coming up in 2014. Vote out all the Republicans every chance you get - especially those in the US Congress. They don't even work for those that elected them. Americans across the nation would be fired if they set the example as does the US Congress. Nail their asses to the wall!
ReplyDelete