John Boehner

What Boehner Faces In 2012 After Payroll Tax Debacle

Brian Beutler | December 29, 2011, 5:52AM

U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) speaks to the press during his weekly press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on December 1, 2011.

In the immediate aftermath of the GOP's payroll tax debacle, a handful of conservative House Republicans publicly attacked their leaders -- particularly Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

"I am disappointed that our Republican leadership in both the House and Senate chose a course of political expediency rather than standing on conservative principle," said Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) in an official statement.

Others appealed to Fox News, where conservatives and Republicans feel more comfortable expounding on party/movement contretemps.

"He's (Boehner) got a big problem when he comes back," one anonymous congressman claimed. "He may have a hard time keeping his Speakership after this."

"We were hung out to dry by our leadership," said another unnamed member.

The list goes on. But the holidays calmed the backlash, and with a week's hindsight a consensus of sorts has emerged among party strategists, aides (current and former) and congressional scholars. Not all agree on the question of how well or poorly Boehner handled the situation. But though Boehner's 2012 won't be easy, those House conservatives who were seeing blood last week are likely to be disappointed again.

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Norm Ornstein

What's In A Wave? How A Big GOP Midterm Win Really Looks

Brian Beutler | October 28, 2010, 1:34PM

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

If there's an obsession afflicting Democrats and Republicans and pundits, it's a focus on the number 38. If the Democrats lose more than 38 net House seats, they lose the House. If they contain their losses to 38 or less, they keep it.

For almost everybody who covers or participates in politics, this is the number that will determine whether or not Democrats "win" or "lose" on Tuesday.

But the prevailing dynamics don't care about that benchmark, and, indeed, suggest that Democrats can lose the House and still do "well" given the speed of the wind in their face.

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Health Care

Hidden Danger: How The GOP Could Kill Health Reform Without Repealing It

Brian Beutler | July 23, 2010, 1:00PM

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

For all the GOP chest puffing about reversing the new health care law, a full repeal, to put it generously, is a long-term project. Even if they retake the House in November, they almost certainly won't retake the Senate. Even if they retake both the House and the Senate, they'd still have to contend with the filibuster. And even if the filibuster weren't an issue, they'd still have to contend with a Presidential veto. All of that adds up to long odds, and they know it.

But if they do retake the House, even by a slim margin, they could still make a great deal of mischief, effectively sentencing Obama's history-making accomplishment to death by 1000 cuts.

"If Republicans are rewarded with control of the House of Representatives, we will use every means at our disposal to take that case to the American people, and repeal Obamacare lock stock and barrel," said House GOP Conference Chair Mike Pence. "We'll also use whatever means are available to delay implementation of Obamacare."

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Filibuster

So You Wanna Reform The Filibuster? Here's How

Ben Frumin | February 22, 2010, 11:20AM

Strom Thurmond sets the filibuster record: 24 hours, 18 minutes.

Here's the good news: reforming the filibuster -- technically speaking -- isn't that hard.

The bad news: It's unlikely Democrats have the political will to do it.

Threatened use of the parliamentary delaying procedure -- which requires 60 votes to overcome -- has become increasingly common since Republicans returned to the minority. And there's been quite a bit of talk of reforming it. Sen. Evan Bayh's (D-IN) for it. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) reportedly is too. Cal Cunningham, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Senate in North Carolina, is making filibuster reform a campaign issue. And a majority of Americans want the filibuster gone.

So what can be done about it?

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Cloture

The Rise Of Cloture: How GOP Filibuster Threats Have Changed The Senate

Ben Frumin and Jason Reif | January 27, 2010, 12:51PM

While Republicans spent the last several months threatening to filibuster the Democrats' health care reform bill in the Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scrambled to secure 60 votes -- only to have the whole fragile arrangement blow up when Republican Scott Brown won the Massachusetts senate election last week -- we kept hearing that the relatively recent rise in filibuster threats was a bipartisan phenomenon. Both parties are guilty of this when they're in the minority, we heard.

It's true that there has been a decades-long uptick in the use of cloture filings -- often to overcome filibuster threats -- by whichever party is in the majority, but the best measurement of that trend shows an explosion since Republicans were consigned to minority status after the 2006 election.

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