Remember all those articles about Boehner planning to take revenge on Republicans who had opposed his Speakership? Remember how he was going to take away their committee positions as punishment? And remember how angry a great many people on the right got about it?
I wrote this post about it at the time. But the next day I wondered:
…[T]here’s no real evidence that the retribution [by Boehner against his conservative enemies] is occurring… Now, I’m not saying it won’t happen. As I’ve written before, politics ain’t beanbag and people with power tend to reward those who support them and punish those who don’t. But it’s interesting that nothing much has really happened yet and yet we get all these reports that it’s happened or will happen. Who is making the reports? The MSM. Since their goal is to heighten the discord on the right, they have every motivation to spread rumors that will do just that.I’ll wait for something clearer before I will believe it’s happening. Again, I won’t be surprised if it happens. But it may not.
Now comes this article in National Journal entitled: “Boehner Foes Get Gavels, Not Punishment,” and subtitled “The speaker’s allies are annoyed that GOP rebels are getting top subcommittee slots.” Here’s an excerpt:
As Republicans try to foster unity at a joint retreat here, frustration is boiling over among allies of House Speaker John Boehner that his biggest detractors are being rewarded with promotions, even after trying to overthrow him in a coup earlier this month.The latest controversy comes as Rep. Louie Gohmert, who directly challenged Boehner for the speakership, announced on Thursday that he was given the chairmanship of the Natural Resources Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee…Boehner’s allies have been much more eager to exact revenge against his opponents than the speaker himself has, and leadership sources have said that while Boehner is angry at his foes, he does not think public retribution is the best long-term move.Gohmert is only the latest Boehner foe to receive a gavel. Because of that, several members described a thick air of tension within the House GOP Conference, a feeling a second Republican House member described as a blanket hanging over the GOP’s three-day retreat, which ended Friday.
The only constant seems to be the constant carping within the Republican Party. Boehner certainly doesn’t appear to be doing what was rumored. Perhaps the reports that he was taking revenge were merely efforts to stir up reactive anger on the part of conservatives.
Or perhaps Boehner was in fact planning the rumored revenge, and changed his mind when he saw the outraged reaction. It’s hard to know.
However, I would caution all conservatives (and I include myself in this group) to be alert to the very real possibility that the press is trying to fan the flames of your ire, and that you are sometimes being manipulated.
[Neo-neocon is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at neo-neocon.]
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