In what can only be described as an embarrassment for John Boehner, the vote for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives made history on Tuesday when 25 members of his own Republican Party opposed him. It could have been much worse.
If you believe campaign promises, the margin would have been even wider– perhaps enough to have gone to a second ballot. A second ballot for speaker apparently hasn’t happened since 1923 and would have opened floodgates of opposition from the less courageous opposition members.
With voting occurring shortly after being sworn in, the entire Georgia GOP House delegation supported Boehner– despite primary campaign vows to the contrary from some newcomers. Some are forever on Youtube with those vows.
The way Boehner challenger Rep. Louie Gomert tells it, the votes to force a second ballot were there right up to the initial balloting. Gomert told Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity that some anti-Boehner members backed off under threats, promises and arm-twisting from the Boehner camp.
Consider the example of new Congressman Barry Loudermilk. The way Georgia’s best known pro-enforcement immigration activist, D.A. King, puts it , “along with the other new representatives from Georgia, Barry sold out less than an hour after he was sworn in…” Edward Lindsay, an unsuccessful primary challenger who Loudermilk continually blasted for not being “a real conservative,” only shook his head, smiled and said “no comment” when this writer asked about Loudermilk’s broken anti-Boehner pledge.
“Violating campaign promises so openly and immediately creates the need for some fast talking from the new congressman,” said one Georgia Tea party posting. A staffer in the Washington office of new Georgia Congressman Jody Hice, responding to a telephone inquiry, actually said that Hice “had to hold his nose and vote for Boehner. It was obviously a very tough vote.”
A Loudermilk defender posted on Facebook that “the real vote took place back in November. This was just a ceremonial vote. They knew there was no chance of beating the speaker, so save your vote for the big ones you might can win.”
News reports indicate that retribution against Boehner opponents has already begun. The speaker has already removed Rep. Daniel Webster from the powerful House Rules Committee because he ran against Boehner. Sources say there could be similar attempts of retribution for the members who reversed their campaign promises to conservative voters in Georgia.
