Charles Krauthammer has it right in a post at NRO tonight, It’s Nothing But a Power Play:
Obama’s objective is to fracture the Republican majority in the House
Let’s understand President Obama’s strategy in the “fiscal cliff” negotiations. It has nothing to do with economics or real fiscal reform. This is entirely about politics. It’s Phase Two of the 2012 campaign. The election returned him to office. The fiscal-cliff negotiations are designed to break the Republican opposition and grant him political supremacy, something he thinks he earned with his landslide 2.8-point victory margin on Election Day.
This is why he sent Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to the Republicans to convey not a negotiating offer but a demand for unconditional surrender….
What’s going on here? Having taken Boehner’s sword, and then his shirt, Obama sent Geithner to demand Boehner’s trousers….
What should Republicans do? Stop giving stuff away. If Obama remains intransigent, let him be the one to take us over the cliff. And then let the new House, which is sworn in weeks before the president, immediately introduce and pass a full across-the-board restoration of the Bush tax cuts.
Obama will counter with the usual all-but-the-rich tax cut — as the markets gyrate and the economy begins to wobble under his feet.
Result? We’re back to square one, but with a more level playing field. The risk to Obama will be rising and the debt ceiling will be looming. Most important of all, however, Republicans will still be in possession of their unity, their self-respect — and their trousers.
John Boehner has a choice. Participate in the destruction of the Republican majority in the House and abandon 59,142,004 people who voted against Obama, or …
Choose the Christmas Strategy, and make Obama take us off the cliff.
You don’t understand how angry those 59,142,004 voters are right now at the humiliation you are enduring but which is directed at us.
Update 12-7-2012: Melt the lines, it will make you feel better
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Comments
“Boehner has a choice.”
How come you and Krauthammer understand this and 59,142,002 other people do too, but Boehner doesn’t. Isn’t that strange?
Simple answer: Boehner is a crying jackass who can’t see past the faux tears in his eyes.
Complex answer: Boehner is a RINO who sees things the Democrat way.
It’s time for a no-confidence vote on Boehner. Start writing your ‘pub congressman to demand it. His ass needs to be fired as Speaker.
Get rid of him before he does anymore damage.
A natural and obvious replacement would be Paul Ryan.
Jack…no confidense vote is coming up in Jan when the selected speaker is up for redafication of the 7/11 reelection.
All it takes is for 216 no votes & he’s removed as speaker and as of right now, no speaker is better then Boehner.
Call your rep
So who are the obvious choices to replace him?
Paul Ryan (WI)
Eric Cantor (VA)
Darrell Issa (CA)
Some names I thought might be interesting possibles:
Tim Scott (SC)
Kevin McCarthy (CA)
Pete Sessions (TX)
Of course Cantor is probably the favorite (though not mine).
My criteria for Speaker: Someone who actually believes in entitlement reform, limited government, free enterprise, isn’t a Keynsian, and actually has some ideas. The Speaker must be able to articulate his beliefs and other good ideas, be persuasive, and be unafraid to fight the opposition. The Speaker should also have basic business savvy, especially knowing when to lead personally and when to delegate competently.
Final count for Romney was :
60,382,066 !!
So what? The smarmy hypocrite lost because he ran a horrible campaign.
The nation doesn’t deserve four more years of Obama. But Romney deserved to lose.
CalMark…”Smarmy”?? Of all the things that decent, adult, hugely moral & competent man, Romney is, you think he’s SMARMY??
Did I just see a scampering gnat..? Nope, just Cal’s (pardon)Brain,’Yo.
Neo Scum…Mitts attacked his fellow contenders more vicously the the opposition…he certainly deserves condemnation. His a wimp to Kommiecrats only
Amen, brother.
The final count for Romney is not yet known. The current count for Romney is 60,771,703. Source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjYj9mXElO_QdHpla01oWE1jOFZRbnhJZkZpVFNKeVE
it’s all about them…period. Keep the gravy train running.
No real decisions, no real work, nothing…it’s broken.
Of course they’re going to abandon us! They already have: by cutting the throats of the Tea Party Congressman and by adopting the left’s language in the budget b.s.
This is John Boehner you’re talking about. For 20 years, this guy has been in Congress with his head up his obama and his tail between his legs, and he became Speaker simply because he was ‘there’ long enough, not by merit or by leadership ability. No one knows why Cantor got where he is, and Reince Priebus got where he is because he’s a good accountant. Insanity!
I keep attempting to bring the discussion back to this simple point: we need to fire Boehner, Cantor and Preibus NOW. There is simply no other way to move forward and meet the left head-on. None.
Further: ‘Barack Obama is a house of cards.
We just need to keep blowing on it harder and harder, and it will come tumbling down. ‘Blowing’ takes persistence, guts and fortitude. Name a GOP leader with all three — besides Jim DeMint, who wisely left the Senate to go back to conservative marketing.
The method of choosing committee chairs, majority whip and speaker are based on seniority which sounds to me much like the rules that unionized folks follow.
In the workforce world, this can be combated by “right-to-work” laws and if the same were to be applied to Congress, wouldn’t the Tea Party folks qualify as right to work members?
Yep, it’s time for a purge beginning with the top guys…
Boehner is doing everything he possibly can to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
But it isn’t his money he is playing with.
They are all lucky we are not in Egypt. The Republicans will get blamed no matter what happens, so why not let Obama take this last step!
Visualizing his ears flopping on the way down—–
If people are angry, where are the calls to boycott union-made goods and services? Where are the calls to boycott Hollywood movies and TV shows? When will we hear an uprising against GEICO and Progressive insurance and their Obama-loving executives?
If you’re so angry, why are you still trading with the enemy?
Good Points !!
And people thought Obama was the Manchurian candidate.
Nope…. it was the other tan guy.
The fiscal cliff is misunderstood. The fiscal cliff is something that Obama is psychologically building up but his intent is not to solve it or to agree to anything. There is literally no offer that that the Republicans could make that he would accept. Any offer the Republicans would make would be met by plus ones until the offer is not acceptable.
The way everything was timed, taxes will go up and defense will be cut, but the cherry on top, from Obama’s perspective, is that Republicans will be blamed for the higher taxes and defense cuts that their “intransigence” was the cause of.
The real problem is the Republicans were outfoxed years ago, when Obama agreed to keep taxes low for two years, just in time for higher taxes to kick in after his election, and the sequestration was allowed to kick in after his election as part of the debt ceiling fiasco. Republicans keep trying to do these big deals with Obama, but they don’t understand that he doesn’t want to do deals. He wants to win. He set up the earlier deals so that now, if Republicans don’t deal on his terms, he gets what he wants and he gets to blame them for it.
All that said, I don’t see an easy way out of the mess that the Republicans are in right now.
This is what’s so silly: of course there’s away out. And that way is not to play the game the media set up the GOP to play!
I’ve never seen such collective idiocy ( — no offense to present company).
“Obama” is a bully. How do you knock down a bully? — By knocking his front teeth out. You might get your ass kicked, but you’ll never get bullied again. The GOP needs to call the bluff and figuratively put a fist in Obama’s mouth — and laugh off the media response (as well as making a few impassioned speeches during prime time).
Then, you’ll see the house of cards that is ‘Barack Obama’ come tumbling down.
THAT is the answer. If the GOP leadership is not willing to
do it, well, we’ve lost. So the answer, again, comes back to replacing the GOP leadership.
Boehner is a treacherous bully.
And his caucus, who are all afraid to stand up to him, are a bunch of craven ninnies. They could easily oust this bastard if just a large proportion of the Tea Party class of ’10 refused to vote with him.
Boehner will push through Amnesty next year, dooming the GOP and conservatism to two generations of irrelevance.
America is finished. Thank you, John Boehner, corrupt traitor. Rot in heck.
What amazes me is that so many people who are condemning Boehner for a deal he has NOT made, and have done nothing but smear him not just on policy but personally since he became Speaker, somehow believe they are part of his “base” that he need not offend.
What color is the sky in your world?
Boehner IS the Speaker, and there is no credible challenge on the horizon, not even any significant minority challenging him. Comments on conservative blogs don’t count in leadership votes.
Boehner has always been acutely aware of what he could sell any given proportion of his caucus. He’s never been able to make a deal Ryan won’t sign off on.
Poor, poor John Boehner. So reviled for being a treacherous bully.
What the hell would you have us do, then? We call, we send emails and faxes, we demand for “our” Representatives (not Boehner’s, OK? Or is the concept too hard for you to understand that they represent their constituents in D.C. and not the “Boehner Bows to Obama” caucus?)
Boehner’s record as Speaker (or should I say “House Obama Caucus Leader”) is one of incessant surrender on the big issues. We have a right to revile and condemn him, based on a history of nothing but treachery and bullying.
In a just world, he’d fall from power. But we live in a tyranny now, and nobody important gives a damn about morals, just money and power.
Remember how that jerk came to power? — From a Tea Party sweep in 2010?
And we are not ‘stuck’ with Boehner as Speaker. We’re going to kick his ass out of that slot.
Redstate showed us an easy way to get rid of Boehner: Fire Boehner: We Only Need 16 Votes to Depose Boehner
P.S. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe Paul Ryan is just another phoney-baloney cult figure? All image, no substance? He’s voted with the Establishment majority on every single thing. His stupid budget allegedly brought the deficit under control — in 10 years. Yeah, that’s useful. Oh, right, I forget. He’s Rush Limbaugh’s good buddy, so that means Ryan is third only to God and Rush.
Paul Ryan: just another GOP hack with a great p.r. machine to give him a “conservative” image. I didn’t say anything during the campaign because it was the wrong time.
Boehner keeps playing a game he is good at losing.
The first party that stops reading the polls and does what is right wins!
As a middle income worker, if taxes have to go up, then fine, GO UP ON EVERY SINGLE TAXPAYER PERSON!
none of this stupid chit about “rich”, “middle class”… anyone who works and pays federal taxes is now considered RICH by these socialist dems!
and I say this as a former democrat!
stop the damn spending! and if taxes go up, first they up on everyone, its not only the rich will bear the burden, it will trickle down to middle income people like me (rich people have CPAs etc to figure out how to adjust their income, people like me don’t, my taxes will go up! and I make considerably less than 250k), second, it HAS TO BE tied to spending cuts, not slowing the growth of spending, ACTUAL cuts!
are the repubs that spineless?!? hell, they lost, which means Barry’s now in charge, let him take the FULL reponsibility for this! MSM will say whatever they will, “ohh, those evil repubs”, as an independent, I couldn’t give a chit what the liberal establishment says, they are just another bunch of leeches living off the largeness of the govt.
we are already over the cliff, as Ron Paul said, we’re just figuring out where to land.
Repubs, at least the fiscally conservative ones, grow a spine. Independents like me voted for romney and tea party people in 2010, it sure as hell wasn’t for social issues, it was for fiscal, limited govt conservatism!
We need to get back to basics: we need to call the ‘Obama’ bluff. You’ll see everything else fall in line.
In fact, you’ll see the same Obama that fell apart during the first debate with Romney.
The GOP has and will throw us under the bus.
Consider:
Jennifer Rubin wrote a blog post blasting Tea Partiers yesterday. That followed a New York Times Op-Ed on Tuesday written by former RNC Research Director David Welch comparing Tea Partiers to Birchers. Also this week, Boehner kicked Tea Partiers off important committees.
Anybody believe in coincidences in politics? I don’t. I think that all this public marginalization of Tea Partiers by Republican operatives has been coordinated. My hunch is that somebody, or some group, with enormous clout in the Republican Party wants Boehner to cut a fiscal cliff deal and diminish Tea Party influence. I just don’t buy that Rubin, Welch, and Boehner have all acted independently within a two or three day stretch this week to very publicly marginalize Tea Partiers.
In history, tyrannical oppression becomes the most coordinated and vicious when the tyrants are the most afraid.
However, seeing as how these bastards control everything worth controlling, I don’t see how they won’t win and keep winning. When Boehner shoves through Amnesty, we’ll have a permanent leftist majority for at least two generations, perhaps until long after even the very youngest of us commenting here has been six feet under for decades.
Here’s a thought experiment. Try to imagine that Boehner actually does what is being suggested by many and tells Obama to take a hike and walks. As inconceivable as this is, how conceivable is that Boehner and the Establishment GOP would withstand one second of the shrieking hellish wrath of the media who would recognize the threat to Obama and go after them. How long did Romney hold up against the shrieking hellish wrath after he came out strong on Benghazi in that first press conference?
No, we have no future with these people. They have to go, or we have to go. They are not people of character or conviction or even useful cunning; they are inimical to the essence of our beliefs.
Treacherous (anyone who’s read my posts lately has seen that word a lot), cowardly, and unprincipled. That is the GOP “Leadership.”
They are the most spineless, craven group of despicable, ninnies and satanic quislings imaginable. Think that’s too strong? My contempt and loathing for them transcends anything it’s possible to express in the written word.
We have two big problems. First, Republicans are routinely disloyal to their constituents. If we get amnesty, we might as well form another party, because there’s nothing to lose, as Democrats will become the hugely dominant party for the rest of our lifetimes.
Second, the “conservative” commentators who have surrendered (Bill Kristol) or are dishonestly misinterpreting reality (Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter) to cover up their malfeasance in getting us Romney; according to them, Romney bears no responsibility for losing, being a godlike being; no, all is lost, and we should all just accept that we’ll have to live under tyranny.
I happen to agree that there is no hope. It’s because of treachery, plain and simple: D.C. toilets (Johns, that is: Boehner and Roberts), “conservative” commentators who refuse to acknowledge their complicity in propping up the Establishment and their disastrous policies.
I’m still fighting, but only as a matter of principle. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be on the winning side, given how good the Dems are at lying and stealing elections, and how routinely “our” so-called “leaders” and “guiding lights” betray us.
P.S. Don’t expect ’14 to be a replay of ’10. The Dems now have a magnificently effective GOTV machine that harvests votes from huge numbers of people who have no moral right to vote, whatever the laws may say.
What do we do then ?
Just give up ??
Of course it was ‘coordinated!’
Now, WE need to be coordinate, as we decimate the leadership of the GOP and replace it.
Since the majority party in the House effectively determines the Speaker of the House, could, or would, the GOP representatives vote in a different person to be speaker; splitting the GOP vote between two candidates?
Of course, maybe if they were to do that, the Dhimmis’ might sneak in Nancy P. to be Queen of the May! Nah, it wouldn’t look good for the minority party leader to be the Speaker, would it?
New campaign: Send a dirty old sock to a GOP hack, with a suggestion he stick it in his mouth:
http://thefinereport.com/2012/12/new-campaign-send-a-dirty-old-sock-to-a-gop-hack/
First of all, Prof, I love you to bits.
Secondly, if you’re having a hard time reconciling the apart squish of the Republican party with more traditional Republican stances, IMHO read it as an expression of how truly desperate and scared the Congress is. The writing is on the wall: we can’t stop spending without contraction and we cannot keep spending without a horrendous fiscal crisis that even CBO says they can’t possibly describe. Does Obama get it? Does he believe it?
This is not the Great Depression – this is the Great Recession plus massive insolvency at every level of government. All hands on deck are now bailing as quickly as they can for today only. We’re well under escape velocity. So, I want to know what Congress is going to do when we are Japan (have we failed to notice that our second largest creditor is in deep s***t) – they’ve revolved all the sovereign debt at ultra-low interest rates, it’s all held domestically, and despite all that and unending stimulus spending and money printing, the patient is DOA and entering her final recession.
Republican squish is the inevitable momentum of the status quo when you’re already too far gone.
The Final Number of voters for Romney was :
60,382,066. Which was HIGHER than for McCain.
Many were voting for Ryan this time around. And for Palin last time.
Romney and McCain were not worth voting for, really, except to defeat Obama.
Romney is a corrupt liberal who made a career of getting into the taxpayers’ wallets – many of his business deals and the Olympics cost the US taxpayer billions.
Really? Romney has been in the taxpayer’s wallet for years and is corrupt? Can you please back your comment up with some facts and examples? Now, Uncle Sam, I am not a Romney supporter, but I did vote for him and my state went for Romney and Romney is alot of things but your descriptions of him are patently false. But, while you are trying to think up examples supporting your lies, why don’t you also count up all the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars that have flowed into state and federal coffers from the wealth that Romney has help to create?
Congratulations. What are President Romney’s plans to deal with the deficit?
The Final Number of votes for Romney is not yet known. The Current Number of votes for Romney is 60,771,703. Source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjYj9mXElO_QdHpla01oWE1jOFZRbnhJZkZpVFNKeVE
Well worth reading….
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/show-this-to-anyone-that-believes-that-taxes-are-too-low
Jim DeMint is leaving the Senate, and we’re left with the likes of John Boehner in the House. And we wonder why we’re getting beaten up every time we turn around.
Newt did the ‘unthinkable’ and shut the government down twice at least. This is the way he forced them to accept welfare reforms and stopped taxes.
We need courageous leaders with convictions.
Vote out the corrupt career politicians and stealth liberals.
In theory anyway, Newt could be elected Speaker again. Did you know that the Speaker doesn’t have to be an elected Congressman? Source: http://government.laws.com/speaker-of-the-housex
Ooops, bad link. Remove the supernumerary “x” from the end of the link like so.
http://government.laws.com/speaker-of-the-house
CalMark…Focus…FOCUS…Goooood…Now, very slowly PUT THE COFFEE DOWN…Gooooood…Now, carefully STEP AWAY FROM THAT MUG..!
GOOOOOOOOD.(-:
No, Romney is two-faced, he deserved to lose, and the Republican base deserves better candidates. And the GOP “leadership” is spineless, doesn’t believe in anything other than cocktail parties and good press (which they never get anyway), and lip service.
To hell with them.