That didn’t take long, did it?
Word of Boehner waving the white flag on tax hikes has provoked a “Fire Boehner”campaign from the GOP’s “fall on your sword” caucus. The campaign even has its own Twitter hashtag. So, you know it’s serious.
This is the work of the American Majority Action group, a conservative non-profit group that loves this kind of far-right-or-die fight. Says AMA grand poobah Ned Ryun:
If conservatives want to keep the House and win the Senate, we need to fire John Boehner as speaker of the House. We only need 16 House votes to do it.”
Already it’s garnered online support (admittedly from some of the usual suspects). And it follows a threat from Erick Erickson, a must-read in the conservative online universe, that ends in “there will be blood” fashion:
Conservatives must seek retribution or become the paper tiger John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy just declared them to be.
Yee-ouch! “Retribution”. That’s an end-of-the-trilogy, movie-poster word.
But for all the threats of civil war in the GOP, a Boehner ouster seems unlikely to move forward.
First, it seems that after his own ouster of four of the more recalcitrant members of his caucus from their committee assignments, the rest have fallen in line.
Also: AMA, the group leading this charge, seems to be punching above its weight on this one.
It’s biggest scores were in the Wisconsin unions vs. Scott Walker fights, and it’s never tackled anything of this magnitude. More importantly, The Sunlight Foundation reports that AMA only spent about $235,000 for and against candidates in 2012, which is pretty small beans in the outside spending world. And most of it was directed against President Obama, not for any specific House candidates.
So, the odds of a serious fight seem pretty small.
Then again, the “fall on your sword” crowd will always have 2014.
***Update***: John Boehner, don’t let the door hit you on Jim DeMint’s way out. Professional thorn-in-the-side Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., is bolting for the more financially rewarding task of managing a major Washington think tank. But before he did, he took a swipe at Boehner on Rush Limbaugh’s show. Rush queued up the “joke” with the suggestion that “it’s safe to say that Boehner is not forcing either of you guys, out, right?” The other “guy” being Heritage Foundation’s outgoing president Ed Feulner. DeMint replied: “It might work a little bit the other way, Rush.” Can’t wait for that exit interview.
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