Speaker John Boehner knows fending off a challenge to his Speakership from conservative rebels Tuesday was only the first of many minefields he will traverse in the 114th Congress. And perhaps he has his ally, now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to thank, at least in part, for the mess he is in.
It was, after all, McConnell who predicted last year that the far-right insurgent groups outside of the Capitol working to spurn the Republican congressional leadership at every turn would be vanquished. “I think we are going to crush them everywhere,” he said. Every incumbent GOP senator survived his or her primary challenges and was successfully reelected, including McConnell, and the Republican leader had crushed them indeed.
{mosads}Marginalized Tea Party conservatives are furious. They believe there would be no historic majority in the House — nor control of both chambers by the GOP — without them. They are outraged Boehner has often passed consequential legislation with Democrats. They think the leadership is failing to punish an unlawful president for his executive overreach. They viewed the spending bill passed in December as a complete capitulation to President Obama. They are outraged that all they hear from GOP leaders now are pledges for piecemeal, bipartisan bills and promises to never shut down the government. They do not agree it is the job of congressional Republican leaders these next two years to protect the party’s nominee in 2016.
As the sun comes up in the morning, plans to oust Boehner have been hatched and rehatched since he took the helm in 2011, to no avail. The constant rebellion has hobbled him throughout his tenure — and raised the groups who fundraise off the promise of his ouster a healthy amount of money. Yet Tuesday’s rebellion was far worse than the near-death experience Boehner survived in 2013; the man leading the largest GOP majority since World War II was the target of 24 votes opposing him, more dissent by a party against its Speaker since the Civil War.
Outraged members urged retribution, and Boehner stripped two dissenters of their committee assignments, but the rebels are undaunted. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), considered too far on the fringe to become Speaker but who nonetheless started the rebellion on Sunday, wrote that Boehner’s punishment of his dissenters meant that “it appears before we can work together, we are now going to have to have another fight.”
Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, said Republicans should study the names of the brave members who opposed Boehner because “one day, they will lead that party, and the party and our nation will be far better for it.”
Even conservatives like Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) publicly lamented their support for the Speaker, with Mulvaney explaining why the coup attempt would never succeed and Labrador stating, “My vote for Mr. Boehner is not an endorsement of his past leadership.”
Clearly, further retaliation will only make the road ahead more difficult for Boehner.
“I think that the real consequence for these members is their standing with their colleagues,” said one GOP leadership aide. “The anger is broad and deep about the fact that some of these members feel it’s OK to rail against their own colleagues in deeply personal and inflammatory language and then demand that others not express anger or expect consequences for what they view as betrayal.”
Boehner is eager to, as he said in his acceptance speech, “stand tall and prove the skeptics wrong.” Earlier this week, he declared: “Nothing is going to get in the way of our team’s focus on the American people’s priorities.”
Of course “team” is relative, and Boehner will expect betrayal around every corner.
Stoddard is an associate editor of The Hill.