Much like Queen Elizabeth, Boehner has some power but would lose it if he actually used the power.
If you mean lose a challenge to the Speakership from within the Party, that is surely possible but I don’t see it as likely. I just can’t find an upside for the non-Tea Party majority in the Republican Caucus to be allowing the 50 or less extremist run the show.
I understand about the Tea Party big donor money financing primary challenges to GOP moderate incumbents and all that, but appeaseing these fanatics and a lot of their baseless fear mongering and hysteria their noisy media drums up is taking a bigger toll on moderate conservatism than putting up a red line when they lie and dusturb the facts about what they emotionslly oppose. and fighting them head on when every time cross that line.
It is called telling the truth.
Boehner would be in much better shape if he told the truth.
There is still time for Boehner to tell the truth and stand his ground on it.
Too late for him, it is. Fearful of much, he is. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to irrational posturing on Sunday morning talk shows. To the dark side, he has gone. Darth Orange Julius, he is now.
Anyone trying to pin this on someone else besides the Republicans is not living in a fact based reality. The Tea Party wing of the GOP and their various funded-by-Koch-money astroturf groups have been planning this for some time.
Regarding my Post#82 You are looking more right by the hour. I had not seen Boehner on the talk circuit this morning but this is what I meant by Boehner’s need to begin telling the truth - apparently he’s not ready yet.
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The truth of course is that there are four more Republicans with 200 Dems who would pass a clean resolution right now.
So Boehner flat out lied and I wonder if Steffie called him on.
We need journalists who are sure enough if their objective facts to call out pols like Boehner when they flat out lie like this.
Why not say to Boehner that is not true you are lying. This interview is over until you correct the record and promise to be honest. I will not tolerated flat out audacious lying on my show. So what are you going to do? Right now! You have five seconds to answer and it better be right.
That Star Wars analogy was OK, but it could be better. The Dems are in control, so they’d be the Empire. The Death Star is Obamacare, threatening to blow up America with its socialist super laser. The plucky rebels fighting against all odds are the Tea Party. Luke is Cruz, an idealistic hero in over his head trying to do what’s right. Boehner is Han, the cynical rogue who’s only life goal was to follow the money. But even his cold heart has been inspired by Cruz’s bravery. He can’t let Cruz get gunned down in the trench…can he?
I just imagined Cruz whining that he wanted to go down to the Toshi Station to pick up some power converters, and honestly, I feel much better now. Thanks!
I have a scenario I would like open-minded individuals to conptemplate. I am aware this is the Elections forum, but I am trying to elevate the discourse.
First pretend Democratic politicians are sentient beings with principles. Now that we have firmly placed this scenario in the realm of fantasy, let us continue. Pretend that Democrats gained control of the House after the invasion of Iraq. The Democratic party was overwhelmed by grassroots opposition to the Iraq war and many “moderate” Democrats were primaried by ideological (shudder) opponents of military conquest. The House was now controlled by Democrats that were either a) anti-invasion ideologues or b) afraid of primary challenges from these folks.
Suppose the opposite of the current shutdown takes place over Iraq war funding instead of ACA funding. How would this situation be viewed? I submit that it would be seen as a Noble Stand instead of “hostage taking” or “personal animosity to the sitting president” by a vast majority of SDMB participants.
So maybe what many people actually have a problem with is that, contrary to their own views of the ACA, there is a large body of Americans who do not want the ACA. These people sent representatives to the People’s Chamber to stop it.
Some other thougts on the shutdown: It is not a shutdown, but a small scale reduction in operations. The idea that the 2012 election settled the debate on the ACA is laughable. Seriously, it makes me laugh. Mitt Romney, of Romneycare fame, represented absolutely no challenge to the ACA in any form. I listened to the debates along with the rest of you. The main point of contention between Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama was whether or not PelosiCare was going to effect Medicare. They were two sides of the same fascist coin on health care.
The president ran with the promise to make the ACA a reality. He was reelected.
More people voted for the democrats in the House also, but even with more than a million votes in favor the Democrats got less seats.
Pelosicare?
Now that is really laughable, it is a term coming almost exclusively from extreme right blogs and sources, you really need to do a clean up of your bookmarks.
Mr. Obama’s 2012 campaign was primitive “share the wealth” rhetoric and letting his money men personally attack Mr. Romney for being awkward and rich.
What specific claim of mine are you addressing because this seems irrelevent. I stated that a large body of Americans do not want the ACA. Do you dispute that? If so, elaborate. I also stated that these same people sent representatives to the House to stop it. Do you dispute that? If so, elaborate.
Firstly, it is more representative of the truth than the “Obamacare” pejorative used elsehwere in the thread to no objection. Secondly, i used “ACA” throughout my post, you focusing on my single rhetorical flourish illustrates your lack of argument on this point.
You’re right, it is laughable, since the truth is that the passage of the ACA settled the debate years earlier.
I guess you would have been an ardent supporter of the Fugitive Slave Act. It was passed! We must all bow down before our Federal Deciders!
And they didn’t have the numbers to do so in the House or Senate and the ACA was validated by the Supreme Court. So tough luck, try harder next time.
Holding a budget bill to ransom is not how you repeal legislation. The ACA is fully funded and the rest of the federal budget would be fully funded if Boehner had the balls to bring the budget bill to vote.
This is an idiotic argument.
:rolleyes:
The supreme court said the ACA was good policy? Hmmm…
They have the numbers in the House to do precisely what they are doing and it is their constitutional duty to do so.
Who the hell are you to decide what the representatives of other people are to do. They are acting in full accordance with their constitutional duties. The democratic process, worshipped so much by American statists, has given the power to the Speaker to do what he is doing. So he is doing it, and representing his constituents while he does. He has no obligation, legal or otherwise, to represent anyone else, including **Skip **of SDMB fame.
This is an illuminating comment! Maybe you could elaborate.
Will Farnaby, ladies and gentlemen, with another fine post from the Dope’s premier libertarian thinker. Sure, it’s stupid and annoying - but what else has he got?
Not what I remember from Mr. 47%.
The fact that more than 1.4 million voted for the House democrats shows that your say so of “there is a large body of Americans who do not want the ACA. These people sent representatives to the People’s Chamber to stop it.” was not completely accurate.
Nope, when a shibboleth like that pops up it is really the one bringing it in the one that has a lack of argument, because it is a reheated silly term coming from right wing sources.
Oh Boehner has the power to do what he’s doing. It’s just idiotic- he’s hurting the Republican party and the country. He and the rest of the GOP have painted themselves into a corner- the Democrats literally can’t give in, because that would be the end of any sort of functioning divided government. The American public overwhelmingly opposes a shutdown for the purpose of delaying/defunding the ACA, and the longer it lasts the more it’s going to hurt the GOP in 2014, not to mention the actual people that are hurting because of it. The ACA has already started- the only way to end it is for a President to get elected who promises to repeal it. If it’s as bad as opponents say it is, this will be easy for the Republicans to do. But it’s not ending until then.