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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

House Conservatives Must be Willing to Change Their Minds

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  March 10th, 2013 at 04:02 PM  | 

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House Republican Leaders are upset that conservatives in the House “blindsided” them by voting against the CR rule. Had just 17 more Democrats showed up to vote the GOP’s rule would have failed, taking down the CR.

Some of those who voted against the rule said they were going to support it when they were approached by the leadership’s whipping team.

One source close to the GOP’s operation, quoting the popular Netflix series “Game of Cards,” said the members broke the “deadliest sin” of “don’t surprise me.”

“There (was) a revolution afoot that people who whipped for (the Rule) this morning, changed their vote to ‘no,’” the source said.

House conservatives must be willing to change their mind, even after agreeing to vote for the rule.

If the GOP ever starts getting an accurate whip count on these rules and they know conservatives are against them, they will start modifying the rules to woo House Democrats over. House Republican leaders are routinely breaking the Hastert rule these days. They are passing legislation that does not have majority Republican support and relying on Democrat votes to get it passed.

House conservatives are nuts if they think leadership won’t start doing this with the rules.

Conservatives should be willing to change their mind at the last minute and vote against the rules.

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COMMENTS

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  • Viet71

    Have changed my mind. Yes, the House is important, even though conservative members always will succumb to the whip; they like to be rewarded, not punished.

    Rand Paul in the Senate has shown how one clear, intelligent, impassioned, conservative voice can sway all kinds of observers. I’m inclined now to believe, retain the House, find the next Rand Paul.

  • bananapouch

    We must not forget that House Republicans allowed for Obamacare to be enacted in the first place. In Nov. 2009, when the House was preparing to consider Obamacare, the Democrats couldn’t find the necessary votes due to the abortion funding controversy. Rep. Bart Stupak (Democrat of Michigan) then successfully proposed an amendment supposedly banning abortion coverage, which passed 240-194 and Obamacare itself passed 220-215. The amendment was opposed by a majority of House Democrats, and it (as well as that version of Obamacare) would have failed if House Republicans voted present or against it, which they didn’t do. Take a look at these traitors here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll884.xml

  • stan25

    The House Republicans did not have the votes to stop Obamacare. They were outnumbered almost 2-1. There was no way to stop the Obama agenda in the first two years of the Obama administration. It took the Republican landslide of 2010 to finally put the brakes on the will nilly way the DemocRATs were steamrolling their communist agenda through

  • bananapouch

    The Republicans were outnumbered, true, but other parts of the Obama agenda such as Cap-and-Tax or Card Check were stopped. Hopefully it will still be doable to repeal Obamacare when it becomes even more unpopular as its mandates, taxes and other elements go into effect next year.

  • http://haakondahl.com/blog haakondahl

    Senator Olympia Snowe (not the House, I know) could have stopped ObamaCare dead on the vote for cloture. She voted for cloture, however, saying that the bill “deserved a fair vote” and that there “would be plenty of other opportunities” to stop it.
    It profits us nothing to keep our 51% friends around so they can do us harm.

  • General_Confusion

    So our “leadership” is surprised that conservatives are fighting back after the same “leadership” declared war on conservatives.

    Given that our “leadership” has no clue how to fight for anything (other than liberal priorities) I’m not surprised they are surprised.

  • sta46

    Absolutely nothing will change until Ohio 8 wakes up and votes out the weepy wuss. If we had a speaker with absolutely ANY guts we could have stopped a lot of this along the way. He has been funding O-care to the tune of about 25 billion a pop in every CR he has sent over after standing there after the 2010′s saying “we heard you… if we can’t repeal it we’ll defund it”… lying through miserable his teeth. I swear I have often thought that bath house Barry promised boehner that when (not if) he declares himself king for life he will appoint boehner to be his assistant prince.

  • chrisvicar

    It appears that John Boehner and Eric Cantor are at war with conservatives in the House. Conservative committee chairs have all been purged.

  • popdaddy

    My new TX-25 Congressman, Roger Williams, ran a very conservative
    campaign. He voted against confirmation of Boehner for Speaker. I was proud.

    Last week his name was not among the conservatives who opposed
    the rule for the unconstitutional CR. Why? These days pride is short lived.

  • Jim_Riggs

    Well at least we can outmaneuver somebody. It’s just too bad we can’t do it to Democrats.

  • rabun1016

    His vote against Boehner puts him on my donation list next time around.

  • http://llphsecondrevolution.wordpress.com/ spoasteph97

    I don’t think you are correct. He voted for Boehner for speaker: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll002.xml

    (see the roll call vote, his name is under “Boehner”.

  • http://llphsecondrevolution.wordpress.com/ spoasteph97

    Yeah, I’m still trying to decide whether my rep, Tom Graves should get a primary challenge. He used to be very good but his votes for the CR and rule really disappointed me. I’ll probably let him go this time, but if he continues voting for things like these…I won’t vote for him again.

    Also, what happened to Mulvaney? Duncan? Jordan? Blackburn? Schweikert? Labrador? Good gracious…I could go on and on with the list of my disappointments. I hope they’ll all return to conservative values. (Kudos to the ones who voted correctly).

  • sengokunadeko14

    One has to play a careful game of staying united against progressives, yet knowing when standing up for the right issues, even at the cost of “division”, will actually be better for the cause of liberty in the long run.

    Remember, if the Republicans somehow ends up so divided that the democrats take control of the House in 2014, then you can be sure they’ll do everything they can to raise the income tax even more. Just some food for thought.

  • sengokunadeko14

    Rand Paul is a good example of how occasionally standing up to the leadership can actually unite the party even more. We need more Senators and Congressmen like him.

  • davesinsanantonio

    If the Dims win the House next year, they won’t stop with raising taxes—they will work to outlaw all guns, all oil, gas, and coal production, patriotism in the schools, religious liberty, soda pop, and a lot of other things. Do not think I am crazily overstating things—just look at what Nanny Bloomberg is doing in NYC and the NY legislature is doing with guns, and the Colorado nuts also. Listen to the nut cases on the Left and you will understand exactly what the Dim platform will be in just a presidential cycle or two. And, if they re-take control of the Congress those cycles will just be accelerated! If you look at political history in the U. S. that has been the pattern—the nuts are pooh-poohed by everyone and within a few short years their fruitcake ideas become the Dimocrap norm, and then when they win big they start accelerating the destruction.

  • barbara125

    There’s another way to get Boehner out of the leadership position and that is for the House to elect a different speaker. There was a glimmer of hope this year when some conservatives threatened to not vote for Boehner, but alas it didn’t get done.

  • sudomakeme

    I personally know Democrats who are unhappy with this administration and would have considered voting Republican but people like McCain and Akin are what they see representing this party and their basic thought process is: “Hell no, I can’t participate in helping that get into control” and they turn around and vote Democrat again.

  • WmCraig

    I have the greatest respect for any Republican that doesn’t trust John Boehner and his supporters. It isn’t just a matter of changing their minds. It is a matter of insuring success for Republican causes in practice, not only in propaganda from the speakers office.

  • soljerblue

    Just to emphasize Erick’s post, there’s word out today that House majority Whip Kevin McCarthy is saying the House can pass gun control and immigration reform without a majority of Republican votes. It’s already starting.

  • steve51

    Hopefully the GOP leadership in both chambers learned a valuable lesson
    this past week. It’s ok, no it’s required, when necessary, to challenge the
    campaigner in chief & his minions. Rand Paul called his bluff & made him
    look like a fool. All to often the GOP leadership worries to much about their
    ego & appearance instead of doing the right thing. Did the world come to
    an end when sequestration came to pass? Not at all. It’s almost comical
    watching Mr.Obama try to walk his apocalyptic prophecies back. They
    need to quit waiting for him to self destruct & go on offense as we did in
    2010. The man can’t walk on water. It’s time to take him to task on failed
    policies & start turning America back to her former glory before he
    ‘ fundamentally transforms ‘ us into oblivion! We started to turn the
    tide in 2010, we need to wake back up & finish the job!

  • steve51

    We need to quit letting the Dems change the meaning of words,particularly
    compromise, which does not mean abandon your principles,ideals
    & integrity! Just agree with us & everyone will love you, just like us.
    If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.