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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Eric Cantor and John Boehner’s Premature Discharge Problem

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  June 30th, 2010 at 06:19 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Eric Cantor and John Boehner are out today spinning furiously that their discharge petition is better than Steve King’s discharge petition.

Except there is a fundamental flaw: they have a premature discharge problem.

No, premature discharge is not a problem that can be cured with a pill.

In order to have a discharge petition, the legislation to be discharged — that is forced to the floor of the House of Representatives whether or not the Speaker wants it — must have been submitted for some time before a discharge petition is timely.

To file a discharge petition before the legislation to be discharged has “ripened”, so to speak, does not work — it is prematurely discharged.

Well, Eric Cantor and John Boehner really don’t want to deal with a “repeal Obamacare” discharge petition. So they signed it thinking it would give them the cover they needed to undermine it.

While signing Steve King’s discharge petition, Cantor and Boehner also set about getting signatures on Representative Wally Herger’s competing discharge petition for legislation that would not just repeal Obamacare, but would also replace it with something else — something not everyone on the GOP side even wants.

Guess what? Herger’s legislation has not ripened. Were Cantor and Boehner to get 218 signatures for Herger’s petition tomorrow, it would do no good.

Contrast that with Steve King’s discharge petition. Rep. King’s related legislation has been out since Obamacare passed the Senate. Senator Jim DeMint has already filed the companion legislation in the Senate.

If Rep. King got 218 votes tomorrow, his legislation, unlike the other, could be sent to the floor for a vote and Obamacare would have enough votes in the House to have it repealed.

But Eric Cantor and John Boehner don’t really want that to happen. They want to muddy the water and divide their own house.

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COMMENTS

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  • EagleWatcher

    So clear, So to the point. So pure.

  • dontell

    Some will never learn…

  • http://spendenforcer.com/ vortigernpendragon

    That once an “entitlement” passes, it is here to stay.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a-mGHsqsmI

  • gohogs

    the leadership must be replaced

  • obladioblada

    we get to tar and feather them.

  • gohogs

    and senate do not win their leadership positions back! I know ,fat chance

  • avgjo

    Most ‘entitlements’ were popular when passed. This wasn’t.
    Most ‘entitlements’ were passed with bipartisan support. This wasn’t.
    Most ‘entitlements’ were passed when America’s financial health was tops. This wasn’t.

    When the other ‘entitlements’ were passed, people did not have access to good information, analysis and alternative views like they do now.

    When the other ‘entitlements’ were passed, people were not disgusted with their government like they are now.

    When the other ‘entitlements’ were passed, people did not have fax machines, email, twitter, Fox, RedState, Michelle Malkin, Rush, Hannity, Beck, Levin like they do now.

    When the other ‘entitlements’ were passed, people were naive to the deleterious effects of big government, massive spending and crooked politicians, which they are not now.

    At our fingertips lies literally the entire world of information. Places like RedState provide moral support, but also brainpower; we have several lawyers here, from what I understand! We can tweet, email, free fax, phone or all of these our representatives.

    We almost stopped Obamacare dead in its tracks by our protests; we slowed it down for over a year. And that with DEMOCRAT supermajorities in office.

    People say that the parties are all the same. I say not true. Don’t misunderstand me, it can be hard to tell the difference between individual Republicans and all the Democrats, but they are not the same. And perhaps the single biggest difference between the two is that, at the end of the day, the GOP cares about what the people think. For which, see Amnesty – the Bush Years, Social Security privitization. But our dear GOP friends are sometimes hard of hearing; so we have to yell really, really loud so that they understand.

    We may well have to put the same effort into getting Boehner et al. to defund Obamacare that we put into trying to stop it. Ditto repeal after 2012.

    But make no mistake, we can do it.

    Are you ready for round 2?

  • pamela1631

    Common Sense?

    So you’re telling me that all the spines, brains, cojones and common sense have been pilfered, ripped off, taken an extended holiday amongst the member of congress?

    Where in God’s good name did all the men go in Washington?

  • redtillimdead

    Paul Ryan, Cathy McMorris, and Mike Pence are still great. Jon Kyl ain’t half bad either.

  • AceInTX

    and the Vichy Republicans like Boehner and Cantor don’t have the gnads to do the will of the people and repeal the frigging thing…Instead, they play patty cake and dance around it while actually trying to scuttle any attempt to work the will of the people.

    What a bunch of worthless…mealy mouthed and incompetent clowns…

    Of course anyone who points out the obvious duplicity of these idiots who have to be suffering from something like Stockholm Syndrome or are just simply playing at opposition to the Obamadems while actively working to advance their agenda is to be ridiculed and insulted and accused of simply backbiting and collusion with the Democrats.

    I’m so disgusted with these vermin I could eat lightning and crap thunder right now!

  • earlgrey

    WHat have we been doing wrong? What must be done to bring the public back to understanding what is happening to them?

    Maybe the polls are what have Boehner and Cantor panicking

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    I mean, right now he’s busy wrecking the American people’s confidence in the Democrats’ ability to manage a simple oil spill, let alone energy policy: like it or not, there’s a limit to how of his party’s policy positions he can sabotage at any given time.

  • rdelbov

    we must not stop fighting Obamacare until its repealed.

    That being said not sure this discharge petition of Kings or Boehner is the best approach.

    Not repeal is possible in 2010.

    In 2011 we might not be able to repeal it but we can defund it. We can refuse to fund any of these boards -try to repeal bits and pieces of it-delay implementing it-undo the taxes. Make the democrats fund on everything on a weekly basis

    fight on the beaches

  • handprop

    People don’t really want socialized healthcare but all they see is Republicans who want to kill the only chance they have at dealing with the problem. If Republican leaders had any brains they would stop talking about just “repealing” it and also talk about a sound game plan to fix it. Our party is weak and has no focus and no game plan.

    handprop

  • AceInTX

    But who gives a crap at this point.

    After months of a half aXXed effort to stop Obama Care from being passed in the first place

    After months of listening to Mitch McConnel and his beltway advisers toot their own horns about their brilliant messaging strategy

    After months of listening to the too cute by half scenarios about allowing the Democrats to pass this abomination so we could hang it around the Democrat’s knecks and beat them to death with it

    After months of watching Republicrats in leadership do nothing to point out the obvious flaws in the law after it was passed

    After months of listening to these cheap facsimiles of men blab about Repealing Obama Care whenthey have 63% of the American public screaming for them to do just that….

    THIS IS WHAT WE GET?

    I said when all the talking heads and the sheep were saying the goal would be to allow this to pass so we could use it against the Democrats in November that our leadership would be too scared and stupid to pull it off…

    AND HERE WE ARE

    They have 63% of the people behind them

    They have the Democrats running scared and numbers of Democrats running for their lives against Obamacare in an effort to save their miserable necks…and what we get is a leadership throwing the Dems a lfe line in the form of a meaningless discharge petition that they can sign onto that will never be acted upon.

    Brilliant…Absolutely !@$%ing Brilliant

    I’ve all but decided they never wanted to stop Obamacare in the first place….and they don’t want it repealed and replaced now…they want to do what they’ve done for 40 years on Medicare and Medicaid….they’ll use it as red meat to get the base fired up…but they’ll never lift a finger to do anything about it!

    I’m disgusted with the whole lot of them from top to bottom!

  • Raven

    How many votes do we have? What Republicans have Not signed it? What Democrats are wavering on it?
    What’s the progress? Who do we call next?

  • longhawl

    I just tried to send send Eric Cantor a short email expressing my displeasure with this situation. I receive updates from his YouCan site which come from Eric.Cantor@mail.house.gov . I have sent it twice to this address and both times it has came back with a failure to deliver notice.

    Anybody know what is up with this or have a valid email address for him?

  • Andrew_D

    but I am sick of RedState and its shrill “conservatives” who demand everything now.

    Most of you don’t even have a historical perspective on traditional conservatism. You praise Reagan to the moon, but you hated him when he was president. You split the party on George Bush and gave us the mess we have now. If you can, you’ll split the party again this year when we actually have a chance of retaking Congress. You thrive on being the perpetual minority. You thrive on being haters. I’ve had it. Ban me. Do want you want. I won’t be back at RedState for a long time. I’m sick of the vitriol. I’m trying to help win an election. This is so not the time for these kinds of headlines and this kind of public dirty laundry airing.

    This last disgusting, childish, and arguably perverse headline is the last straw.
    Eric Cantor and John Boehner?s Premature Discharge Problem? – Your own rules say “Be respectful, or be banned.” Guess that doesn’t apply to the guy who runs the blog, or his pack of minions.

    I’m a Republican first – just like Reagan!

  • lineholder

    I hope you will continue to support conservative goals all the same, leave or stay.

  • gohogs

    their hands. They have continually refused to push for the conservative cause for decades.So why should we be surprised when they fail to deliver anything for conservatives now.There are so m any issues the leadership could WIN with, Obam acare is but one. School choice is another. Taking school m oney away from poor black kids in D.C. seem s just fine with John Boehner. Taking 500billion away from grandm a ,thats ok to. Well you know its not ok with m e! You would think that Boehner would be banging these gongs at every opportunity. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOO These peolpe are dancing on m y last nerve. Do they not realize if they keep this up they will be a minority party forever. I think m aybe thy do, and just want it that way.

  • mikerazar

    But when you say

    “But Eric Cantor and John Boehner don?t really want that to happen. They want to muddy the water and divide their own house.”

    I would like to think you have some credible evidence for such a slanderous charge.

    Also, why do you start two different diaries on the same topic in one day? It doesn’t exactly help a serious debate on the subject.

    Once again I’ll concur with some other RedStaters. We are fighting people who want to kill babies, old people, and the Constitution. These petty squabbles only weaken our fight

  • JSobieski

    To say that Cantor and Boehner don’t really “want” to repeal Obamacare is a slanderous charge. The issue here is tactics, not goals.

  • JSobieski

    I really do we need to have an articulate spokesman for conservative ideas, and he is the best we have.

  • gohogs

    There would be no squabbles

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …if you hadn’t been screaming last month about how we were at war with Islam-the-religion. Since you want to bring up hating, and all that.

    Can anybody remind me why I didn’t insta-ban him then for that? It’s usually not something that I let pass.

  • Bill S
  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    n/t

  • handprop

    when he said “Well, Eric Cantor and John Boehner really don?t want to deal with a ?repeal Obamacare? discharge petition”

    Provide proof he is not right. The fact is they don’t and it’s not just them two,

    handprop

  • mikerazar

    Prove that you believe in repeal. I think you are just trying to sow dissension among conservatives by starting useless arguments. Only a double agent would do that.

    I hope you understand that my point is not to attack you, other than to rebut your assertion that “they don’t”.

  • handprop

    think you are trying to attack me, not at all. :)

    The thing is Mike, I’m just really upset right now because for the life of me I can’t figure out why we have no central focus and no central game plan…..we have some great leaders in the ranks but only as individuals. I guess proof was a bad word, maybe I should of explained myself.

    Please don’t call me a double agent though…that simply doesn’t make sense.

    handprop

  • mikerazar

    only that it is hard to see where anyone is coming from based on a single difference of opinion.

    I happen to agree that the best thing leadership can do is to poll the caucus and come up with a single unified position. But can’t we debate the tactics without attacking motives of sincere conservatives like Boehner and Cantor? Call them mistaken, but not RINOs.

  • handprop

    It’s important we always question each other if only to keep us honest and genuine.

    They are certainly not RINO’s

    I tell ya Mike, we, as Republicans, could and should own the healthcare debate. It is every bit a Republican solution if we could just all focus on the solution…….and the solution is not repeal. A repeal just stops healthcare, we need to bundle or package our solutions along with the repeal.

    My thought is to start by not using the name “repeal”, it doesn’t settle well with average folks. Just the name is starting to get a bad rap because it has nothing to do with solutions…..and solutions are what we need. We just need to do it together and focus 100% on showing America what we as conservatives are capable of. Without a central focus we are dead in the water.

    The biggest trick the Obama administration ever pulled off was to define the mission and get everybody in the party to unite. If we could do the same we would clean house.

    The whole healthcare issue has me really upset today because we CAN solve this as Conservatives/Republicans!

    handprop

  • JSobieski

    now I am being silly too.

  • avgjo

    the Republicans are a little hard of hearing, and they need us to yell in their ears, REAL LOUD. It was like Amnesty21, act I: they started on it, even though they knew polls showed it wasn’t a good idea. They kept at it for a while, even though they started hearing from their constituents. Only when they got their phone and fax lines fried did they back off. But they did back off. And that’s more than we can say for the Dims.

    don’t misunderstand me, I share your disgust at their lack of courage. It’s pathetic that we have to tell them to do the right thing.. (Not to excuse them, I just wonder if some genius pollster or analyst told them to tread carefully and that’s what they are doing.) But we still have to do it. And yes, if we pressure them and they still don’t do it, toss the jerks out on their duff.

    There is one good thing to come out of this story and that is all the heated responses to it. I was beginning to wonder if the anger at this bill was beginning to subside, even among my fellow conservatives here. Glad to see that that’s a big no.

  • avgjo

    Boehner caught a fair bit of flak from the MSM for coming out and committing to defunding Obamacare. And he didn’t back off. That would seem to indicate some integrity regarding this issue on Mr. Boehner’s part. In the same vein, he signed or has committed to sign the King petition. Mr. Cantor has too.

    Don’t misunderstand me. I haven’t been saying it much, because I don’t want to be the worrywort, but I have said several times in the past that we need to prepare to keep pressure on these guys to do what we want them to do. I know it’s pathetic that we have to do this, and that they should be self-motivated, but water’s wet, the sky’s blue and Republicans are squishy. We will have to do the heavy lifting again. The stakes with Obamacare are simply too high not to do it. We almost stopped Obamacare, with Democrat supermajorities, by virtue of our voices. With Republican majorities, if we do the same thing, we can first get defunding of it and then repeal after 2012. But we have to commit to fighting just as hard. That’s why I keep asking people if they are ready for round 2.

    BTW, I think getting all Republicans to sign King petition would be a good idea, if for nothing else than to fire up the base. I just wonder if the GOP are thinking that it might fire up their base too. I guess they do have to tread carefully.

    If we are willing to ‘have their backs’ by doing our part to get out the vote, they’ll be fine, no matter what. That said, you know what would be an interesting experiment? If we at Redstate, in conjunction with other Conservative activist groups, made a list of all the GOP guys who haven’t signed the petition yet. Then, we could choose one or two each week to pound them via phone, fax and email, to pressure their signature. We’d need some help from the big dogs here,(Erick, Moe Lane, Dan Perrin), people that all RedStaters listen to. Also, it would be a great thing if the other websites/groups did the same thing. It would be interesting to see the results, which I think would be good, and it would be good practice for 2011 and then 2013.

    later!

  • dudette

    these guys asking them to sign the petition. I am going to start faxing the Reps on this en masse; did 75 democrats yesterday. I hate it when Repubs step in it – how stupid can they be????

  • dudette

    will the big dogs help us little chihuahuas?? Our bites are actually worse than our barks….

  • mdd1956

    We have such squishy leaders, how did that come to be?

  • mdd1956

    certain things, guns, speech, abortion, healthcare.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2010/06/29/limited-liability-financial-crisis-and-bp-someone-else-sees-the-obvious-quot-black-swan-quot-of-executive-trader-moral-hazard-after-investment-banks-went-corporate.aspx

  • Raven

    Didn’t you know that?

  • Raven

    This is Moe, after all…

  • Raven

    Where are we at with it right now? Who do we call next?

  • bretz21

    I have never in my life seen how badly Republicans are fighting Republicans. It’s not only Boehner and Cantor it’s in most of the primaries. In Florida Crist can’t win the primary so he goes Independent; Bennett loses, in Utah, so he and Bridgewater lie about Mike Kee and Jim DeMint. In Colorado, Jane Norton is trying to create a scandal against Ken Buck, the same way it was in Nevada with Sharon Angle and in South Carolina with Nikki Hayden?. These so called republicans only care for themselves and not the good of the Country. Are these kinds of people any different than the democrat, socialist, marxistt, communist party. The party of Hussein Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the rest of the 175 members of the Insane Party, Senate and House members.
    I think the Republicans need new leadership. Boehner, Cantor and also new leaders in the Senate. Not just the Washington Insiders Club but real Conservatives who will fight for the people not their Cronies. In the House, Mike Pence or Trent Frank, just to name 2 wouldn’t be bad. In the Senate wouldn’t it be nice to see Mike DeMint or Jim Imhoff be the leaders.
    Steve King(R) Iowa needs something like 217 signors for his petition to vote over on Obamacare and repeal it yet Boehner and Cantor want to back a bill only to revise some parts of it.
    It’s a crazy world out there.

  • floydbayne

    Such quality leadership. Always out front, taking the lead to do the right thing for America! (Please note: This is sarcasm)

  • itrytobenice

    He hasn’t signed King’s but he supports Herger’s. I gave them both barrels.