The Republican Party from 1995-2007 was headed by Speaker Newt Gingrich for four years and Speaker Dennis Hastert for eight years.
With all of their faults and shortcomings as Speakers of the House of Representatives, there was a sense of loyalty and obedience to the House leadership when it came to floor votes on legislation.
But that is now a dim memory, as Speaker John Boehner is unable to control his own caucus, and was embarrassed yesterday to lose on a vote on the Farm bill, due to the Tea Party radicals who are determined to wipe out the Food Stamp program completely, and have no concern if children, the elderly, and the disabled are starving!
When one listens to the debate and the lack of concern and human compassion that the Tea Party wing nuts have, one would think that Boehner should make a dramatic announcement that he is resigning as Speaker, since the job has become impossible to manage!
Boehner is being destroyed from within, including undermining by his own House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia, who is the evil genius behind the Tea Party movement in the House.
Cantor is only concerned about his dream to become Speaker of the House, and is willing to ride roughshod over Boehner, as Cantor has no ethics, morals or scruples, and is a monstrous example of power grabbing gone mad!
The poor GOP performance should lead to repudiation by their constituents in 2014, but with gerrymandering and an old Confederate mentality still existing in much of the South and the border states, and anti government militia mentality in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain areas of the nation, more of this incompetence, stalemate, and gridlock are likely, whether or not John Boehner sees the handwriting on the wall, and resigns, allowing turncoat Eric Cantor to accomplish his dream of turning America backward to the years before the New Deal and Great Society!
Ronald writes: “But that is now a dim memory, as Speaker John Boehner is unable to control his own caucus, and was embarrassed yesterday to lose on a vote on the Farm bill, due to the Tea Party radicals who are determined to wipe out the Food Stamp program completely, and have no concern if children, the elderly, and the disabled are starving!”
I don’t believe in the “Tea Party.” Never have. In 2009/2010, that was a manufactured movement which was quickly embraced by news media. CBS’s election-night coverage in 2010, hosted by Katie Couric (now with ABC), used a “T” by Republican candidates as a modifier to the “R” in their visuals. (It was, for example, indicated with Florida’s Marco Rubio, who won the U.S. Senate race over Democrat Kendrick Meek, then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Charlie Crist, who was a Republican who changed to independent and is now a Democrat and had also been governor of the Sunshine State). The Occupy movement, later, was being chipped away at in part by news media (like Erin Burnett at CNN, an example of what a dumping ground that operation has become), and it’s clear to me, between the two, that there had been a covert operation to put the “Tea Party” on the map to manipulate the political arena for control of the debate. It doesn’t surprise me that the “Tea Party” turned out to have a connection to the Koch brothers.
In the meantime, I won’t legitimize them as a party. They are Republicans. If there is anything in the brain of 61st Speaker of the House John Boehner which can gauge what is actually good for both the U.S. and his political party, his reaction to some of the losses of 2012 (including unseated congressmen Joe Walsh, in Illinois, and Allen West, in Florida) was one of great relief.
Thanks, D, for your thoughts on this issue!