while I have been disappointed in his lack of aptitude for a fight, and therefore weak achievements in spite of his strong majority in the House, I tend to give him a little benefit of the doubt, due to the lack of ability to get bills passed in the house to get through the Senate (or past an assumed but not proven Presidential Veto). So I’ll take a wait and see attitude a little longer.

That, and I don’t want R’s to eat their own, when there are so many D targets that deserve it even more.

while I have been disappointed in his lack of aptitude for a fight, and therefore weak achievements in spite of his strong majority in the House, I tend to give him a little benefit of the doubt, due to the lack of ability to get bills passed in the house to get through the Senate (or past an assumed but not proven Presidential Veto). So I’ll take a wait and see attitude a little longer.

That, and I don’t want R’s to eat their own, when there are so many D targets that deserve it even more.

If we see (and I have NO doubt we will) this “Captain Caveman” approach to the Debt limit and the FY 12 budget we will see nothing but smoke and mirrors cuts and full funding for PP, NPR, Americorps, etc.
That, my friends, will cause millions upon millions of tea partiers, libertarians, small business people and others to abandon the GOP and whack it with an over 50 seat loss next year.

Next time it comes to temporary CRs, Boehner needs to get out ahead of the game, and put together a “clean” first CR, with the exception of fully funding for the rest of the year:

National Park Service
Defense Department
Passport Office
[other important citizen-facing services]

That way, when there is a government shutdown, citizens won’t be visibly impacted, and the media scare tactics will fall flat.

Look, I love John Boehner. Great personal story and seems like a nice guy.

But, I get the impression he was perfectly happy before the Tea Party came along and handed him control of one of the branches of the Federal Government. I think he would have preferred to play his 120+ rounds of golf a year and tell Pelosi jokes to his golfing buddies. He is pretty old(61?) to be picking a fight and someone who is ambitious and looking for a fight is what is needed here.

Cantor also not ready for prime time. Seems a little timid about his convictions, not very articulate about a conservative vision, and not very likable, either. That combination may be doom for Conservatives.

I am hoping there is someone under the radar that sees what a unique time and place we are in that is behind the scenes building a coalition that will emerge as the real People’s representative and lead this movement forward.

Look, I love John Boehner. Great personal story and seems like a nice guy.

But, I get the impression he was perfectly happy before the Tea Party came along and handed him control of one of the branches of the Federal Government. I think he would have preferred to play his 120+ rounds of golf a year and tell Pelosi jokes to his golfing buddies. He is pretty old(61?) to be picking a fight and someone who is ambitious and looking for a fight is what is needed here.

Cantor also not ready for prime time. Seems a little timid about his convictions, not very articulate about a conservative vision, and not very likable, either. That combination may be doom for Conservatives.

I am hoping there is someone under the radar that sees what a unique time and place we are in that is behind the scenes building a coalition that will emerge as the real People’s representative and lead this movement forward.

Look, I am not a huge Boehner fan, but he may be the right person for the job.

I agree totally with Erick. He needs recalibrating…certainly, in the next fight, the goals are enormous.

Boehner has the right personality to deal with someone like Obama: stern, but appears reasonable. I would rather have the firebrands in the party attacking Obama from elsewhere. But most americans are clueless…they don’t pay attention. And a firebrand, naturally, causes great enthusiasm…for both sides. We don’t need that. What we need is for indepedents to feel comfortable with our platform first. Otherwise, we will never get it passed. At the same time, the firebrands in the party can fight tooth and nail for the reforms they need.

This has to a multipronged approach. Boehner should be the face of the House Republicans…but that does not mean he has to be the only voice.

It sounds like we need to restructure how the GOP leadership is selected. I don’t know how that could be done (I’m an idiot), but the problem is glaring.

It is patently obvious that the main problem the GOP has is it’s inexplicable preference for selecting leadership hell-bent on self-inflicted losses when they have advantage/leverage. Until that changes, it seems the epitome of optimism to expect anything different.

Maybe 4…

First bite was the 2011 budget CR
Second is the debt ceiling vote
Third is the 2012 budget
Fourth (maybe) is the 2013 budget

We had the least to gain from the first bite (and many would argue, myself included, that we didn’t gained much at all in the end). The strategic argument for Boehner here would be that the Dems were trying to force the GOP to burn all of its political capital on that first bite, where they had less to lose, giving them leverage to win the rest of the fights.

It is hard to fathom, but the Dems do seem to believe that bankrupting the nation is an acceptable, even preferable, policy goal. Arguing against this level on insanity, when you have a slavish media that will paint all coverage fed to the low information voters in terms that favor the Dems, is going to be very difficult.

I am trying to be optimistic that Boehner is trying to keep his powder dry and that this fight was for the narrative, rather than for the actual cuts. That the second bite will result in real spending reductions and needed reforms.

I also think that the anger about the results this round from our side is healthy. It keeps the GOP on notice that they are being watched and they are expected to win this and stop this decent into insanity. The good news for us is that we will have a VERY good idea about Boehner’s abilities to affect the changes necessary by the next time we vote in 2012.

I’m going to wait and see what the results of the bigger fights are, though, before I start calling for the blood of the gladiators.

I could see this coming a mile away after yesterday.

Its not that I do not agree with some of the conclusions drawn or even that I like the outcomes. I dont.

Truthfully, I feel trapped and as if we are in some sort of different dimension where instead of doing what is good and right for our country we do our best to undermind and destroy it.

From my angle it almost feels as if all of us (both grass roots and leadership) are following a script on how to ensure Democrats regain the house and do as much permanent damage to this nation as possible.

Somebody wake me up and tell me it is a nightmare, please. lol.

Keep Speaker Boehner, but … MORE BOLDNESS NEEDED

1. I find it very interesting that you are naming names when it comes to the staffers who are helping / not helping here. (Like Conryn’s NRSC missteps, lots of errors are driven by having the wrong staff – Morton Blackwell had a rule on that.) This puts them on notice as to how closely they are being watched. Keep it up! Tell us the wimps and the stars, and send a message: BOLDNESS IS NEEDED.

2. We are doing SO MUCH to get the Democrats off the hook politically, its laughable. Why? We NEED this to be a fight. The instinct to avoid conflict with the Democrats is the RINO way, a failed and flawed way that destroys our ability to show the stark differences between the parties on the ONE MAIN ISSUE WHERE THE GOP HAS A CLEAR ADVANTAGE. We should NEVER be cutting back-room deals or cutting them slack. We should never relent on reminding that the last 3 years were an egregious deviation and we must fix it NOW, and not let stimulus over-spending become the ‘baseline’ for bloated Government. Be bold and attack!

3. The approach on the ‘negotiations’ going 3-way was wrong. Boehner should have insisted on the Senate coming up with and passing real legislation. THAT would have put the Democrats on record with their plan, which then could be picked apart (notice how the Democrats are in total attack mode over the Ryan plan, but where is there plan – they did not have a budget at all for purely political reasons, they knew their plans were politically indefensible). the second thing it would do is get the Senate GOP in the loop and make the Senate more the ‘compromise’ AND it would even the odds. Boehner in a 3-way with Reid and obama is a prescription for GOP giveaways, but a House-Senate one-on-one, when you have 47 GOP senators and 23 Dems up for re-election? Much better odds. Be BOLD enough to keep it out in the open.

4. We know now that most of the $38 billion was smoke and mirrors. It was a bad deal, and it would have certainly been made better had it been in the open, see #3. DONT FALL FOR IT AGAIN. That is inside-the-beltway same-old same-old. Boehner needs to stand up and tell Obama and Reid their midnight sessions are not right – BOLDNESS NEEDED.

5. The Ryan plan is bold? Really? It locks in the extravagent 25% of GDP budget as a baseline and gradually winnows it down over 10 years. No good enough – the GOP FY2012 budget plan should be cutting about $400 billion in one year from the Obama budget, which is bloated by $400 b relative to where we were in the 2006 budget. So, use the 2006 budget as baseline and spend a population and inflation adder for 2012 – $400 BILLION OFF, or around $3.2 trillion instead of $3.8 trillioin – THAT would be bold, and NECESSARY, to get the deficit down from the stratosphere. MORE BOLDNESS REQUIRED.

6. MAKE A BIG DEAL OVER THE DEBT CEILING. Failure to utilize every tool available to move the center of gravity on tax and spend is a failurer of leadership. Here is what Boehner needs to extract from the Debt Ceiling vote:
Defund Obamacare. Do ifs, no ands, no buts, no excuses. NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT THE HOUSE AGREEING. This is a bill that the majority in the House and the majority in the Senate will want to greatly amend. And the majority of the people agree. GO TO THE MAT – NOW – ON DEFUNDING OBAMACARE AND KILLING THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE. It can be done. Will Obama veto it? Ahem, what exactly will cause Obama to get defeated if have a happy-smiley bipartisan ‘deal’ of mush that does nothing and sends the signal that the GOP wont change a thing? Do we NOt remember that the 1994 GOP Congress had to send the welfare bill to Clinton 3 TIMES to get him to sign? And that in the end Clinton DID sign to get re-elected? You think ignoring the #1 cause of bloated Government spending is OPTIONAL?!? No Mr Speaker, BOLDNESS is required to get any progress. YOU MUST CONTINUE TO PUT OBAMACARE DEFUNDING AND REPEAL IN EVERY BILL AND EVERY BUDGET. IT MUST BE A LINE IN THE SAND.

If Boehner and the GOP fails, the autopsy of their failure will read: “MORE BOLDNESS NEEDED”

Understatement of the century.

How about we challenge both Boehner and Cantor in the primaries and get rid of them both.

Boehner is way out of his league in any negotiation with the President and Democrats. He also is either a horrible negotiator or deliberately misleading in what he articulates to party members. And not many folks are believing his affinity for Tea Party types anymore.

Cantor? Well I am betting he can’t negotiate his way out of a paper bag. I really don’t understand what purpose he serves.

They should both get out of the way for people who are actually proven leaders.

You’re right, Erick. Boehner does some need recalibrating — at least for now. He’s still scared Republicans would lose the PR war if the government shuts down.

But that was 1995, when the only big voice for conservatism was Rush Limbaugh. Today, all kinds of blogs, talk radio, Fox News and sites like Red State have also taken up the fight. In short, the lamestream media no longer have a stranglehold on public opinion (much to their chagrin).

So if the progressives want a fight, we should take it to them.

I believe they should swing for the bleachers with the debt ceiling vote. Ask for the balanced budget amendment.

1) the president is out of the voting on this

2) it puts democrats on the record for spending controls

3) it is the only way to ensure that future congresses stick to fiscal discipline

posts here, if I didn’t know better, one would think that a disaster happened in the bogus “Government Shutdown “(ha), in 1995. The truth is that the Republicans did not lose at all in the following election. In fact they did not lose control of the House of Representatives until the election of 2006, some 11 years later. By the way, There was no Government Shutdown in 1995 other than holidays and the usual routine shutdowns. Please know your issues!

Reaction to Boehner’s inadequacies is really a function of one’s perspective on the current financial crisis. If you believe that the problem is neither imminent nor acute, then a risk-averse political manager will do just fine and you let him retire to the backroom to make the best deal feasible. On the other hand, if you perceive that our current fiscal course is a trainwreck in progress, then true leadership becomes a mandatory necessity. Does anyone think that Boehner will magically transform into a real leader as soon as his chief of staff is replaced? Or perhaps we should wait until after the tsunami hits before we concern ourselves with such trivial matters. That worked very well for the Japanese.

Neither is the Republican leadership off their game. They don’t have a game.

Anybody with half a brain knew when Boehner got elected Speaker of the House that this would be result. The guy is a completely spineless coward and will do anything to avoid a redux of Gingrich’s career ender EXCEPT sit down with the leadership in November of last year and lay out a war plan to shut down the government over this budget and get in front of the media then. Instead the stupid sob lays back and plays with BO in lame duck and then shows up for work as Speaker with tears in his eyes instead of the blood of agencies being closed on his hands.

Boehner isn’t part of the solution, he is the problem. And Cantor is absolutely no better. We need a complete replacement of leadership in both the House and the Senate.

I do not think that we should be calling for Boehner’s head…..yet.
But I do think he will need to shift his strategy for the upcoming battle over the debt ceiling and FY2012. Bold leadership will be needed and the swing for the fence strategy must be implemented.

The Dems get no increase in the debt ceiling without a BBA that forces spending cuts and does not allow Congress to simply raise taxes to fund their addiction to spending.

he is capable of recalibration? You could see his feckless leadership a mile away. We need leadership that does not care how the media will react to them because it will be the same song regardless of which way we go. Time for games is over. Someone who could actually articulate a conservative principle would be nice.

I understand the Senate is democrat, but Mitch has been in Congress 25 years… since he said last year his #1 priority was to keep Obama to one term where has he been? Boehner could have used some support and could have shifted some of the burden over to Mitch. Maybe I missed something but McConnell seems MIA, what’s his story?

I believe that unlike Majority Leader, the Speaker is chosen by a majority of the House, not the GOP caucus. If true, you would either need 218 Republicans to unite against him (good luck) or Nancy Pelosi’s help to oust him (good grief).

Getting rid of Cantor on the other hand, would just require a majority of the GOP if it was so desired.

Oh, and the answer either way is no to both. At this time.

And the rest of the Republican leadership. They’re a bunch of lying weasels who have no interest in what the people want or need. They’re in bed with the Democrats.

for what happened last Friday night. I can just hear it:
Speaker Boehner: “Mr. President, we need to defund Planned Parenthood.
President Obama: Nope.
Speaker Boehner: Ugh, okay. We have a deal.

If it’s anything I admire about democrats, it’s the fact that they fight like hell for their beliefs. Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi doing what Boehner did?

…and let the DEMS shut down the government over that.

Hannity can’t seem to bring himself to ask Boehner any no-b.s. questions or press him for a direct answer.

Boehner sounded like he was lecturing Hannity. Hannity sounded like he was walking on eggshells.

THIS is why these miscreants don’t take us seriously. Even our own conservative ‘elite’ don’t have the guts to really hold them accountable.

I remember back when we controlled the House in the mid-90s and we kept losing Speakers, they made the point that you don’t actually have to be a member of the House to be Speaker, literally anybody can be voted by the House as the Speaker. It occured to me that its just plain smart to elect somebody outside the House as the Speaker, if for no other reason than the Speaker normally doesn’t vote, so electing a House member as Speaker loses you a vote right off the bat, plus what’s the likelihood that whoever you elect Speaker is going to truly be the best leader/spokesman you can find, if you limit it to a pool of roughly 250 or so, instead of the millions you ‘could’ be choosing from?

I agree that Boehner has done a very poor job so far, but if we’re ever going to replace him, lets not worry about ‘does it have to be Cantor, or can it be somebody good?’ because the answer is yes, it can be somebody REALLY good, it can be somebody outside of the House altogether! Certainly the Conservative Movement has far too many awesome leaders from outside Washington for me to name here, but no doubt they could pick any one of them and be a lot better off than they are right now. Hopefully next time we have to choose a Speaker, we’ll take that route.

Boehner is a decent Speaker. His primary problem, and that for conservative Tea Partiers in general, is the budget problems can’t be solved by the old school political play book of Congress just needs to cut spending. These sorts of top down budget solutions will never work because they require putting the politician to make the tough front line choices on where to cut. No war has ever been won by putting the generals on the front line.

The core solution to cut spending must involve give taxpayers more choices on where their tax dollars go. It’s long past time that folks start to realize that the 16th amendment allowing for income taxation doesn’t include any wording that supercedes the property owners of taxed dollars from getting just compensation for the tax dollars taken as is guaranteed by the 5th amendment. Taxpayers, not politicians, can quickly solve these sorts of budget problems for the various social marketplaces if they are given some say in defining our nation’s future.

Yes, to make this happen, the various social marketplaces need to evolve in a fashion so they no longer violate the basic Constitutional premise of preserving liberty for our posterity — The current generationally configured entitlement programs violate that principle.

It’s time to think out of the box. If one is looking for analogies, consider that politics of old are like playing football without passing. Most every play is head first crash into the line, three yards and a cloud of dust is considered a good outcome… It’s time to air it out over the opposition to the fleet footed taxpayers. But there’s no pass plays in the play book… This is as much the Tea Parties failure as Boehner’s. The Tea Party’s general expectation is little more than hoping for four yards over the right side, followed by a big cloud of dust. Big whoop if only 2 yards is achieved — it’s not like a surprise where the ball is going… Again, it’s time to for everyone (including Tea Partiers) to think out of the box — Pass the taxpayers the budget ball — Go figure, there are taxpayers on both sides who will be glad to have some choice… The Obamacrats barely have any playbook against a move that would empower some of their own to make their own choices. Their defense is all about clouds of dust, plus some mud — whatever it takes to take out or stop opposition political leadership to short gains.

If what you say is true, we DO need to replace him.

How about Pence?

I’m done with these old school no fight RINOs.

Done.