Tuesday night felt pretty good, didn’t it? The House GOP, joined by five Democrats, voted for Cut, Cap, and Balance. Finally, the House led on solid reform to turn the tide. Senators got active quickly to undermine the effort and still the House held the line.

Great, wasn’t it? The Gang of 234 stood for freedom and, as an added bonus, gave a wonderful middle finger to the Gang of 6 and its plan to raise taxes more than any other Congress in the history of the Republic all while pretending its offering up tax cuts.

All the while, even as members of the House were voting, the Republican Leaders in the House were conspiring against House members to cut their legs out from under them.

Reporters are starting to whisper to each other and some are even starting to write about it. John Boehner and Eric Cantor are ready to give up. The vote was just for show. They think because Cut, Cap, and Balance won’t pass the Senate, it is time to embrace either MItch McConnell or Gang of Six. It’s sad that House leaders want their own to pick their poison, Pontius Pilate or Gangrene. Fellas, if you haven’t noticed, poison kills you.

But it’s not just that. House Leaders want to also throw in a few smoke and mirrors. They want a “short term deal”. Have we not punted enough? Have we not kicked the can down the road enough? We don’t need a short term deal. We don’t need to waiver. We don’t need to falter. We don’t need to fail. We need to hold the freaking line. We’ve got a plan, folks. Respect the plan.

When the boys in leadership run off the battlefield, will the freedom fighters in the House hold the line?

We’ve seen this before. The House leaders rallied the troops to vote for Paul Ryan‘s plan and then ran from it as far as possible. Heck, they even sent Paul Ryan into the witness protection program during the debt ceiling fight.

You House guys were getting shot up and leadership was hiding or trying to cut deals behind your back. That’s apparently the nature of Republican Leadership.

But this all begs a question — having now stood on principle, having held the line, having set out a vision for America that doesn’t bankrupt us, will you hold still that line?

The Senate is going to push a vote on Saturday for your legislation. Then your leaders in the House and the guys in the Senate will say, “See?! Your plan can’t pass. Do it our way.” Why should you, though, who held the line give deference to them?

I think more and more you might need to consider something a bit radical to the good government types in Washington — hold the line and don’t take the deal.

For the next few weeks, they will bully you, flog you, scare you, and scare your constituents. Hold fast. The same people who have gotten us into this mess want you to believe they will now get us out of this mess.

Hold fast. Hold fast. As Allen West would say — steadfast and loyal. Your leadership won’t be. But now is your time to lead. Now is your time to save the country. Don’t be afraid of deadlines. Be afraid of selling out the country with a bad deal just for the sake of a deal.

On August 2nd, you hold all the cards.