“THERE WAS NO CONSERVATIVE WHO COULD BEAT JOHN BOEHNER. PERIOD.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Mick Mulvaney released the following statement:
“There was an attempt to oust John Boehner as Speaker of the House today. I didn’t participate in it. That may make some people back home angry. I understand that, but I’ve got some experience with coup attempts against the Speaker, and what I learned two years ago factored heavily in my decision today not to join the mutiny.
First, I learned two years ago that people lie about how they are going to vote. And you cannot go into this kind of fight with people you do not trust. We walked onto the floor two years ago with signed pledges – handwritten promises – from more than enough people to deny Boehner his job. But when it came time to vote, almost half of those people changed their minds – including some of those who voted against Boehner today. Fool me once, shame on you … Today was even worse: there were never enough votes to oust Boehner to begin with. On top of that, some people who had publicly said in the past that they wouldn’t vote for Boehner did just that. This was an effort driven as much by talk radio as by a thoughtful and principled effort to make a change. It was poorly considered and poorly executed, and I learned first-hand that is no way to fight a battle. This coup today was bound to fail. And in fact, it failed worse than I expected, falling 11 votes short of deposing the Speaker. At least two years ago we only failed by six.
I also learned that the Floor of the House is the wrong place to have this battle. The hard truth is that we had an election for Speaker in November – just among Republicans. THAT was the time to fight. But not a single person ran against Boehner. Not one. If they had, we could’ve had a secret ballot to find out what the true level of opposition to John Boehner was. In fact, we could’ve done that as late as Monday night, on a vote of “no confidence” in the Speaker. But that didn’t happen … and at least one of the supposed challengers to Boehner today didn’t even go to the meeting last night. That told me a lot.
Some people wrote me encouraging me to vote for Louie Gohmert. I like Louie, but let’s be clear: Louie Gohmert was – is – never ever going to be Speaker of the House. I respect his passion, but he isn’t a credible candidate. That was proved today by the fact that he got three votes, despite all the national media attention he managed to grab. My colleague who got the most anti-Boehner votes was Daniel Webster of Florida who got 12 votes. I like Daniel. He is a nice guy, and a good thinker … but his lifetime Heritage Action score is 60 percent (by comparison, mine is 91 percent). And this was supposed to be the savior of the conservative movement? Would the House really have been more conservative if he had won?
The truth is, there was no conservative who could beat John Boehner. Period. People can ignore that, or they can wish it away, but that is reality.
Some people tried to argue that voting against Boehner would give conservatives leverage, or somehow force him to lead in a more conservative fashion, even if the coup attempt failed. All I can say to that is that the exact opposite happened two years ago: conservatives were marginalized, and Boehner was even freer to work with moderates and Democrats. My guess is that the exact same thing will happen again now. And I fail to see how that helps anything that conservatives know needs to be done in Washington.
I understand people’s frustration and anger over what is happening in Washington. And I also acknowledge that John Boehner may be partly to blame. But this was a fool’s errand. I am all for fighting, but I am more interested in fighting and winning than I am fighting an unwinnable battle.
Finally, the most troubling accusation I have heard regarding the Boehner vote is that I have “sold out” my conservative principles. All I can say is this: take a look at my voting record. It is one of the most conservative in Congress. And I was joined today by the likes of Jim Jordan, Raul Labrador, Trey Gowdy, Mark Sanford, Trent Franks, Tom McClintock, Matt Salmon, Tom Price, Sam Johnson, and Jeb Hensarling. If I “sold out” then I did so joined by some of the most tried and tested conservative voices in Washington.
I can say with 100 percent confidence that I have done exactly what I said I would do when I came to Washington: fight to cut spending, stop bad legislation, work to repeal Obamacare, and hold the President accountable for his actions. That will never change, and neither will I.”
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27 comments
So you are not brave enough to continue the fight, that’s how Dictators are established. Already two heads have rolled, happy you were part of that?
I love how if they could only have had a “Secret” ballot back in November, the conservatives could have acted upon their principles. I guess Secrecy being No. 1 among them.
Typical mindless Right Wing pap.
This clown is just a South Carolina cracker appealing to his cracker constituents with the same garbage peddled by hundreds of others of his ilk(humorously the dumb bastard thinks he’s any different from that buffoon Goehmert,look in the mirror Mickey!)
All they know is he against”those people.” And each of the haters define that term in their own way.
“Conservative Values.”
“This clown is just a South Carolina cracker appealing to his cracker constituents”
lol…funny ass line and true to boot
David Duke = Good
John Boehner = Bad
Wingnuts R Us
You are an obnoxious leftist troll and probably don’t know who your father is.
Way to represent, Roy! Ad hominem IS you! You can’t respond substantively so you dance with who brought you, your feeble intellect. Thanks for playing, David Duke. Try again soon
Wow!!! Struck a dental nerve there?
When he first issued that statement on Facebook there were about 20 comments immediately afterwards, it is now up to 448 blasting him.
Gohmert and he probably believe the exact same things. But Gohmert believes them because he’s an idiot. Mulvaney is smart, but also mistaken about a bunch of things.
I thought they only needed 29 or 30 votes against Boehner
Not that simple.
This is typical. When someone goes to Washington, they become part of a corrupt establishment.
That corruption seeps into almost every member at some point, you know it’s claimed another when the justification for not standing on principle is that “it’s pointless”.
The metric for success in a corrupt establishment, is naturally working within the corruption to “accomplish” something, which requires abandoning principles.
That’s exactly what Mulvaney has done. He’ll get the accolades, committee’s, etc., from those members that have been playing the game for a long time….he’ll tell himself (and obviously try to convince those outside the system) that he’s done the right thing to try to cope with the internal dissonance/betrayal.
Now his delusion of grandeur begins.
One day principle will over power pragmatism. This wasn’t the time, Mulvaney was correct. Boehner needs to go but it wasn’t happening today.
it is nearly impossible to have ideological purity. the left got burned when it went too far left in the 60s and 70s. the right has been burned too. what’s wrong with left of center, right of center. what is wrong with compromise? I am a member of a profession that touts reasonableness. what is wrong with compromise and with voting middle-of-the-road? I just put this out there for comment. I know the arguments for and against.
…written and directed by sic(k) willie. What a scam.
Sadly, the Teabuggers of S.C. will not see through this cr@p. They can’t see beyond their teabags.
The real story here is sic(k) willie attacking those who voted with the
majority to support Boehner. That screams the question:
So, who is paying sic(k) willie to support the handful of Republicrat wackos who refused to support Boehner?
Our Funding Editor finds it surprisingly refreshing that Markie-Mark Sanfraud and Tom-Tommie Davis voted to support Boehner.
sic(k) willie has shown over and over and over that he is nothing but a paid voucher slut for Howie the Voucher Clown.
So, when the sic(k) one is outraged like this, we can only wonder: Who is paying him to be outraged?
BIN News Editorial Staff
Don’t forget the article Will wrote about Law Enforcement in Forest Acres. He was coming from the gym and was not ticketed for speeding. He said Forest Acres as an example of good law. I’m betting he got stopped w/o license and Forest Acres Police let him go but he had to praise them in his column.
my co-w.rker’s mom makes $69 hourly on the laptop . She has been laid off for seven months but last month her income was $19630 just working on the laptop for a few hours. i was reading this;.View More.
Mulvaney is getting his ass lit up on social media.
Social Media=Idiots!
Judge not by what I say but by what I do. Regardless of all these words, what Mr. Mulvaney has done is to abrogate his principles. Hardly a brave political act. So what’s new here? Same old, same old. But you did manage to stay on those committees, didn’t you, Mick?
Spin it, baby… spin it..
Thanks Mick!
Hang in there. These Liberal Democrat Trolls and mindless so called Republicans do not have the ability to reason. No wonder America is in the shape it is.
Only vote your conscience when you are in the majority. Now there’s an original political strategy.
And, just as expected, you are falling for this colossal load of political double-speak. You’re better than that, Roscoe.
Conservatives should for this sellouts Democrat opponent. Its the only way to get through to these people. Payback is a b!tch.
If he says one thing in SC and then does the opposite in D.C ittttttsssssssss Primarrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyy TIMEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I can’t believe the citizens voted for Sanford also haley. Has your world turned upside down. I want names of who voted for them. Please list them. They are cowards.