The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : GOP Establishment Rallies for Boehner

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

GOP Establishment Rallies for Boehner

By Jeffrey Lord on 7.28.11 @ 9:12PM

I look at the list of Boehner Plan supporters Quin has posted while we wait.

And it seems to make my point.

Where are the grass roots leaders? Lots and lots and lots of 'em? I understand this was dashed off in haste to quickly update while we wait for the vote… but still. Where are they?

The talk radio hosts… not just Rush and Sean and Mark, who are decidedly not there. There are hundreds across the land… are they here? I see Laura Ingraham there, but again… there are lots of others.

All the Tea Party people…where are they? These are the people who made John Boehner Speaker of the House.

But you get my drift.

The central point again is that the GOP Establishment has been wrong on most major issues of the last 80 years. The massive expansion of government we are staring at came about not just because liberals ran Congress and the White House often enough. It comes because the GOP Establishment in Congress and elsewhere jumped up to say "me too but a few dimes less." That's why we are here in the first place.

Now, as the rubber hits the road, we're supposed to do it again?

Filled with tons of good people individually, as with any group there is always the danger of the herd mentality. Where amongst them now is the old Reagan suggestion to abolish say, the Department of Education? Or Energy? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the agony at such a thought. That could never pass, they say.

Now, Harry Reid says the Boehner Plan is dead -- and has 53 Senators who agree. So will we dismiss the Boehner Plan with the same ease we dismissed Cut, Cap and Balance? After all…it doesn't have the votes.

No, candidly. It isn't being dismissed. Why? Because the Establishment has made the arbitrary decision that it's OK for one thing to be labeled as not-passable, but not another -- even if it also is not-passable. Why to that? Because the Establishment says so.

Nothing more complicated.

Hence Reagan was simplistic, winning the Cold War unrealistic, cutting taxes impossible. Etc. etc. and so on.

Conventional wisdom, conventional wisdom, conventional wisdom. That's what is really going on here.

And that's not why the House GOP majority is the majority in the first place.

But if you need a list of nays to counterbalance the Establishment list, here’s a quick and dirty:

Mike Lee
Jim DeMint
Rand Paul
Marco Rubio
Ron Johnson
Rush Limbaugh
Sean Hannity
Mark Levin
Mark Steyn
Andy McCarthy
Tea Party Patriots
Tea Party Express
FreedomWorks
SCORES OF OTHER TEA PARTIES
Cato Institute
Heritage Foundation
Club for Growth

View all comments (16) | Leave a comment

CalMark| 7.28.11 @ 9:29PM

I like your list better. Lots of names on Quin's list are reinforcing my suspicions about them.

Boehner morphed into Pelosi the minute he wants to get some backroom deal passed. If Boehner, and the people on Quin's list expended a fraction of the effort fighting Demcrats as they do crucifying "Limbaugh Conservatives," the Democrats would be in full retreat.

Timothy L. Pennell| 7.29.11 @ 7:10AM

Oh, the irony. They THINK that they are doing this, to SAVE their jobs. When, just the opposite, is heading towards them.
As far as John McCain is concerned? He loves his friends, on the other side of the aisle. I say, we give him a taste of something HIS FRIENDS like to do.
I say, we LOAD UP THE BUSES, and start visiting him AT HIS HOME. Let's let him know what we think of him, ON HIS FRONT LAWN.
See how the WAR PRISONER, has now become THE JAILER. Playing with OUR LIVES and the lives of OUR CHILDREN, like some VC GOOK, tormenting him in his cage.
Go back to your WIFE'S MANSIONS, Johnny.
And, WATCH YOUR BACK!
There's a lotta HOBBITS, out here, that would love to get their feet, on YOU.

Rob| 7.28.11 @ 9:32PM

Also: Michele Bachmann

Kingofthenet| 7.28.11 @ 9:42PM

Boehner is going to need a heavy dose of Viagra before this is over...

Brendan Dooher| 7.28.11 @ 10:23PM

Thank you. When I heard Boner say he wanted a dollar in cuts for every dollar raised on the debt limit, I was filled with hope. Then I found out that he wanted to actually cut a dime for every dollar (because, next year they will be raising the debt ceiling again, and he'd have to pull another bs dollar for dollar quote).

This is mathematically unsustainable as our liberal friends are wont to say. The reality is that the apocalypse will come, when we can no longer borrow 1.4 trillion (and who says we are really borrowing it now, and not just printing it and owing it to ourselves????) Frankly, we should admit it. We are broke. Our currency will soon be devalued. And hyperinflation is a mere half decade away. I have a good friend who is a millionaire and keeps all his money in dollars (doesn't trust the market). I told him yesterday - buy a place in the midwest or in the rocky mt states, convert the rest of your money to silver, gold, and some canadian and austrailian dollars, and buy yourself an old ford bronco and store it where you can get to it when the s hits the fan. Regretfully, I didn't go to law school, and am just a poor engineer trapped by his mortgage. And that too will pass. Hopefully he will buy a place big enough for me to be his ranch manager....

Michael L. Hauschild| 7.28.11 @ 10:24PM

Lord - 1, Hillyer - 0

Paul McGrath| 7.28.11 @ 10:33PM

Our currency is already devalued, and when Bernanke decides to print another trillion dollars--and he will, probably in December of '11--it will be devalued further. Buy silver. Buy gold. Real silver and real gold and put it in a safe place. Buy a gun.

Mark in LA| 7.28.11 @ 11:09PM

Where amongst them now is the old Reagan suggestion to abolish say, the Department of Education? Or Energy? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the agony at such a thought. That could never pass, they say.

Where indeed. Probably the same place the Gipper was when he said it, like when he talked about border security. In his Alzheimer's addled brain he thought he had actually done it and went back to sleep having done nothing in the real world.

Nick| 7.28.11 @ 11:55PM

Mark in L.A.,

Are you Phil Donahue? Because you sure do spout the sames lies that Phil spews.

Qianlong| 7.28.11 @ 11:27PM

I'm sorry but the only name on this list that actually causes me to give second thoughts is Andy McCarthy. Still, the list of those supporting the Boehner bill is impressive. After all Allen West has been through, you really want to accuse him of being an elitist part of the Establishment?

CalMark| 7.28.11 @ 11:41PM

For all virtues, Allen West is starting to show a disturbing tendency to wander off the Conservative Reservation.

I love his fire and determination. He was probably a good Army commander, but regardless of ability getting command of a battalion these days means being a "company man." At crunch time, West is disappointingly nothing more than that, toeing the line whenever Boehner calls.

Nick| 7.28.11 @ 11:52PM

Qianlong,

The only people on Mr. Hillyer's list who are impressive, to me, are Mr. West, Thomas Sowell, and Mike Pence.

The rest are only interested in keeping their stock portfolio gains from disappearing, as far as I'm concerned.

Kingofthenet| 7.29.11 @ 12:07AM

Who created All this National Debt, Obama? Think Again:

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/sta.....-58731.php

simon templar| 7.29.11 @ 12:50AM

KingoftheLiberalIdiots: go jerk off to some pictures of Obama.

simon templar| 7.29.11 @ 12:48AM

Just this evening jackass O'Reilly once again slams the Tea Party and trys to blame them as if they are to blame for a deal that will not be made and ignore the 58 dem senators who vowed in writing to reject the Boehner plan. Quin keep making that list..it will be very useful in 2012 when we throw their useless, spineless asses out of office. This was never about getting a bill passed by republicans, getting the best we can get, or any of this other crap being slung around...this was about creating cover for the other progressives in the opposition party and blaming the conservatives and discrediting the Tea Party.

Have you considered| 7.29.11 @ 6:56AM

Thank you Mr. Lord. This list of opposition carries much more weight with me than the Hiller list of proponents.

OK, if they go with this Boehner plan, Exactly What will they campaign on? Yesterday, I went and reviewed the Pledge for American, which did not condition the pledge items on Democrat support.

In 2012, are they going to campaign on cutting spending?; on reining in the EPA and other out of control regulatory bodies?; on getting Democrat approval of their plans?

From the Pledge:
""Our plan stands on the principles of

smaller, more accountable government;
economic freedom; lower taxes; fiscal
responsibility; protecting life, American
values, and the Constitution; and
providing for a robust national defense.
Our plan puts forth a new governing
agenda that reflects the priorities of the
American people – priorities that have
been ignored, even mocked by the
powers-that-be in Washington – and can
be implemented today.

Why would I ever support them again? Fool me once...