Boehner’s Self-Defeat . . . Will It Finally Teach GOP Establishment To Fight?

By DEXTER DUGGAN

A rumor was afoot that John Boehner would be challenged for the U.S. House speakership in two weeks, after immediate budget negotiations were out of the way, former California Cong. Robert Dornan told The Wanderer during a September 20 telephone talk.
Congress can be a glacial institution, big, cold, and slow-moving, a source of frustration to conservative reformers who want to hack away at its corruption.
If Republican Boehner were removed, said Dornan during the call, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would have to wonder what happens to him once his established relationship with the leader of the other congressional chamber is gone.
The glacier, for a change, strapped on racing wheels. By the time Dornan and The Wanderer spoke again six days later, on September 26, Boehner had startled the political world by announcing his resignation effective the end of October, not only from the speakership but Congress itself.
Now what was to become of McConnell, quickly showing his determination to continue doing business the old way that brought Boehner to grief? Some well-placed Republicans began calling for McConnell to quit, too.
In his surprise announcement on September 25, Boehner said he woke up that morning, said his prayers, “as I always do,” and decided the time to step down had come, to spare the institution from irreparable harm due to prolonged leadership turmoil.
Was prayerful Boehner’s conscience perhaps pricking him a bit as a Catholic who, along with the Senate’s McConnell, was going to try to force through approval once again for about a half-billion dollars of federal funding for abortion giant Planned Parenthood?
Conscience never seems to bother liberal Democrat so-called Catholic politicians who smirk at moral truth and laugh off thoughts of hell. Boehner had been all too willing to work with them, but at least he wasn’t one of them.
A major part of the “leadership turmoil” Boehner referred to was conservative rebellion against passive Boehner and McConnell’s way of just rolling over to give radical leftist, anti-religious Democrat Barack Obama what he demanded, once again. Obama insisted on big money for lawless Planned Parenthood.
And did Boehner ever feel bad about the tall tales he told voters before he swiftly betrayed them, as with last year’s bold campaign promises versus this year’s groveling congressional performance despite having won a GOP majority?
“I will give him the benefit of that, that his conscience is biting him,” Dornan told The Wanderer on September 26. “…The path to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Seven ignorant, arrogant U.S. Supreme Court justices way back in 1973 would have been more than amazed to be told their iron-fisted overnight imposition of national permissive abortion would be a major factor in chasing the House speaker out of office 42 years later.
Why, massive baby-slaughter was just a modest move the elitists of the early 1970s demanded. What ill could come of it? The elitists seem to have a special talent for jumping off cliffs on moonless midnights with full confidence that only soft landings await.
National conservative radio talk host Mark Levin expressed concern on September 29 that spineless Republicans won’t be able to keep their Senate majority in the 2016 election.
They talk big about opposing Planned Parenthood’s tax funding and Obama’s nuclear deal with the terrorist state of Iran, Levin said, but they won’t do a thing against them, and they fight against a principled conservative GOP senator like Ted Cruz who tries to take action.
Former Cong. Dornan, a strongly conservative Catholic Republican and former actor and talk host, maintains an intense interest in politics. He characterized Boehner to The Wanderer as both a gentleman and a weakling — someone who would get people’s hopes up that he finally was on the right path, only to collapse.
Boehner announced his resignation because “he was about to get dumped,” Dornan said. “The man does not have a fighting bone in his body. . . . It’s just so good that he’s gone.”
Dornan described Boehner as “a gentleman and a good-hearted guy” who would dash people’s hopes. They’d think, “Here we go, he’s found his compass, he’s found his North Star . . . and it always would come to nothing.”
Obama and his Democrat allies “liked having John there because he was a doormat,” Dornan said, recalling that two years ago, when Boehner said Planned Parenthood should be defunded, Obama simply said “Nope,” and Boehner didn’t try to prevail.
Boehner is displaying “the cowardice of a man walking off the battlefield” despite “the sound of swords clashing against each other” at a time of crises, Dornan said, adding it’s “unbelievable” that the GOP can’t control the agenda when it holds both houses of Congress.
The former congressman said he understands the power of the media, behaving like Democratic Party operatives against the GOP, so Republicans have to push back, as Texas Sen. Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are doing.
Boehner said he thought current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, would be an “excellent” selection as speaker to replace him. However, many conservatives including GOP House members considered McCarthy simply another in a line of establishment Republicans who won’t provide the answer.
McCarthy becoming speaker would “cause a huge furor, more discontent,” Dornan said. “If we can’t get a person who’s in the mainstream of the Republican Party, then the fight will continue, and Obama will dominate.”
As for McConnell’s passive Republican style, “They’re not only chewing their fingernails, but they’re hanging on by their fingernails,” Dornan said.
A familiar theme for Boehner and McConnell was the need for bipartisan productivity. That was their shining star.
It was as if they’d never noticed the gulf that has opened between the two major parties, with the activists in one fighting, among other things, to protect unborn babies’ lives and historic marriage, and the activists in the other demanding exactly the opposite, massive government-promoted abortion and unhealthy sexual disorientation.

Preemptive Surrender

This backward-looking GOP inclination was noted by a conservative activist congressman in the September 25 Washington Post story reporting Boehner’s resignation. The Post quoted Cong. Mick Mulvaney (R., S.C.): “John was fighting the 21st-century battles with 1990s tools, and you can’t just do that with a president of either party who is willing to push the envelopes of executive power.”
Mulvaney also noted the preemptive surrender when Republicans say they’ll never allow funding issues to halt government operations: “When you go into a negotiation and say, ‘Look, the one thing we’re never going to do is shut the government down,’ you have completely given up your constitutional ability to use the power of the purse, and I think that is an abdication of responsibility.”
Also unreal was Boehner’s belief that conservatives simply aren’t patient enough to accept incremental success, as he said on CBS’s Face the Nation two days after announcing his resignation.
However, fully funding Obama’s “executive amnesty” and Obamacare earlier this year, while confirming lawless Loretta Lynch as attorney general and pushing Obama’s globalist trade legislation, are examples of abject GOP surrender, not slow success — to say nothing of GOP leaders’ grim determination to help Democrats keep PP’s slaughterhouses going.
The chasm between the GOP establishment and conservative activists was illustrated when presidential candidate Jeb Bush said he admires the departing Boehner “greatly” — a man, Bush said, leaving Congress at the apex of his career, who will be missed and was focused on solving problems.
On the other hand, conservatives attending the Values Voter Summit in Washington erupted in cheers when Boehner’s surprise departure was announced.

Intense Pressure

Besides Dornan, The Wanderer asked four people, from Virginia to California, for their thoughts on Boehner’s announcement and the future.
Rob Haney, retired chairman of the Republican Party in Phoenix’s Maricopa County, has long experience opposing the “moderate” Arizona establishment, of whom Sen. John McCain is a major example.
“Boehner’s resignation is the ripple a small pebble makes upon a large lake. It changes nothing,” Haney said. “The anti-capitalism, anti-religious freedom, anti-political conservatism, and anti-morality of our hedonist world social order will continue unabated. I am not aware of a political leader of any country who stands forthrightly against this tide of anarchy.”
Val Turner, a Tea Party activist in Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District, was elated by Boehner’s resignation.
Last year, Seventh District voters removed powerful establishment Republican Eric Cantor, then the House majority leader, in the GOP primary and replaced him with conservative economist Dave Brat.
Turner said “Hooray,” with four exclamation marks, to Boehner’s departure. “I am sure the pressure he felt to resign was intense, thanks to the (House’s) Freedom Caucus, which includes our ever-faithful Dave Brat. . . .
“Getting Dave Brat in Congress by defeating Eric Cantor is a gift that keeps on giving, as Cantor would have been the likely successor to Boehner,” she said.
“So, what now? Do we get another ‘establishment’ Laurel to McConnell’s Hardy? And what damage can this existing duo inflict before the end of October, when John Boehner actually leaves? His likely successor is Kevin McCarthy. . . .
“Does McCarthy have a Patriot backbone? Or would he go the way of his predecessor, who found favor with Obama more to his benefit than using the constitutional power of the purse to stop the abuse of executive privilege?
“In my fantasy world,” Turner continued, “the Freedom Caucus would parlay this victory into removal of McConnell, and find two Godly men who actually love this country enough to ‘Lead’ us to restoration of our constitutional republic.”
Constantin Querard is a successful Arizona conservative campaign consultant.
Querard said: “I doubt the average citizen is aware of the turmoil that likely exists behind the scenes in the U.S. Congress. There is no doubt that there has been real discomfort at the performance of the speaker and congressional leadership in general, but you can’t beat somebody with nobody, and to date there had not been an acceptable alternative to Boehner.
“Obviously something has changed, and it seems reasonable that another round of capitulation on everything from spending caps to the Iran deal to funding Planned Parenthood was the catalyst,” he said. “I doubt that (Kevin) McCarthy will prove much better than Boehner, but the members likely decided that change, even for change’s sake, was important at this time.
“Hopefully some real conservatives will climb the leadership ladder behind McCarthy, so that positive change will finally start to happen. In the meantime, a message has been sent to leadership that there is some accountability, so that’s a positive step,” Querard said.
San Francisco conservative commentator Barbara Simpson told The Wanderer that Boehner, “even while overcome with emotion during Pope Francis’ visit, overshadowed the Holy Father by his out-of-the-blue resignation from the House leadership and his congressional seat, effective within a month.
“Despite widespread speculation as to the reason, it’s clear his departure leaves the GOP in chaos with the Tea Party adherents vs. the establishment GOP,” Simpson said. “Did he do it to avoid a vote to depose him? Possibly. He’s been criticized for not pushing votes which could lead to a government shutdown — government funding and Planned Parenthood funding, as well as a highway-funding deadline. Overshadowing it all are threatened Barack Obama vetoes.
“This could be good news for California since Boehner gave the nod to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to succeed him. The Republican from Bakersfield is not Tea Party but it’s said he’s worked to mend fences with the mainstream GOP,” Simpson said.
“Regardless Boehner’s real reason, there’s no doubt a good number of Americans are tired of seeing him cry at the drop of a hat. Crying during a speech effectively ended Ed Muskie’s run for president in 1972,” she said. “I’m only surprised the tears didn’t do Boehner in sooner.”