The former congressman’s second trip to Syria and his first big get for Fox News. First Charlie Rose, now Dennis.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich reportedly sat down for an interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday for Fox News, where Kucinich is now a contributor.
The interview was reported by Britain's ITV News and by Hala Jaber, a reporter for the Sunday Times.
A harsh rebuke of the speaker from the president on Spanish-language TV.
Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press / MCT
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama told Telemundo Tuesday that the future of immigration reform comes down to the decision of one man: House Speaker John Boehner.
"The only thing that's holdin' it back right now is John Boehner calling in to the floor," Obama told Telemundo's Jose Diaz-Balart in a wide-ranging interview, "because we've got a majority of members of Congress, Democrats, and some Republicans, in the House of Representatives, who would vote for it right now if it hit."
Immigration reform, a top White House priority for Obama's second term, stalled in the House after a bipartisan bill moved out of the Senate earlier this year. Though issues like Syria, looming fiscal deadlines, and a long congressional recess kept a comprehensive immigration reform package off the front burner in Washington, Obama said success for reform proponents could still come this year, if Boehner decides to act.
"Everybody should be focused on making sure that that bill that's already passed out of the Senate hits the floor of the House of Representatives. It's not as if the votes are not there. The votes are there," Obama said. "The only thing that's preventing it is Speaker Boehner's decided that he doesn't wanna call it right now."
For months, Boehner has said he will not send the Senate-passed immigration reform bill to the House floor, a move that appeases conservatives in his caucus who oppose the pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants contained in the legislation. House Republicans have promised to produce their own reforms, but they'd rather do it in pieces rather than in one comprehensive package like the Senate did. Obama has signaled he won't sign reforms that don't create a pathway to citizenship.
The president told Telemundo he's open to a piecemeal approach to immigration reform from the House provided the result is a path to citizenship.
"We need to make sure that employers who are taking advantage of undocumented workers, that they are penalized. We've got to improve our legal immigration system so that people aren't waiting for years to get into the country when in fact we should welcome them And finally we should have a pathway to citizenship," Obama said. "And if those elements are contained in a bill, whether they come through the House a little bit at a time or they come in one fell swoop, I'm less concerned about process, I'm more interested in making sure it gets done."
On other topics, Obama defended the economic speech he gave Monday while there was still an "active scene," in the words of police, surrounding a mass shooting at a D.C. Naval facility. Critics questioned the timing of the economic speech, but Obama said it was necessary given the rapidly approaching deadline to raise the debt limit. Obama addressed the shooting at the beginning of his economic remarks.
"I think that everybody understands that the minute something like this happens, I'm in touch with the FBI, I'm in touch with my national security team, we're making sure that all the assets are out there for us to deal with this as well as we can," Obama said. "On the other hand, what is also important to remember is — is that — Congress has a lot of work to do right now. We don't have a budget that's passed. We're hearing that — a certain faction of Republicans, in the House of Representatives in particular, are arguing for government shutdown or even a default for the United States of America, losing our financial credibility around the world if they don't get 100% of what they want."
"I think it's very important for us to understand the urgency that we need to see out of Congress to go ahead and keep this recovery going, put people back to work, make sure that we're building the middle class and providing ladders for people who are willing to work hard to get into the middle class," Obama said.
The liberal icon mostly stayed out of the fray over the potential nomination of Larry Summers for Fed chair. “She is evidenced based and thinks carefully about the policy. That’s why she is such a star,” said NOW president Terry O’Neill.
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
WASHINGTON — There are few senators who can fire up the liberal base more than Elizabeth Warren, a progressive icon who has happily assumed the mantle of the Senate's consumer champion and Wall Street watchdog.
So, when Larry Summers, a man many liberals view as far too cozy with the big banks, was floated as the potential successor to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this summer, many expected Warren to lead the charge against him. And when Summers eventually withdrew his name from consideration last week, Warren got credit at home with a triumphant Boston Herald headline: "Elizabeth Warren bounces Larry Summers as stock continues to rise."
But sources familiar with Summers' defeat — a development progressives celebrated as a major victory — said Warren had little to do with it. Far from leading the charge, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts hung back and let more senior members of the banking committee go out on a limb to campaign against the potential nominee.
Warren declined to publicly take a position on Summers, even as her colleagues began to openly oppose him. And while she was one of 20 senators who in July signed a letter urging President Obama to nominate Janet Yellen for Fed chair, she did so with little fanfare, and only after Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown began circulating it. She stayed away from cable news, where one of her trademark liberal sermons could have galvanized the left, and she did very little behind-the-scenes arm-twisting. The closest she came to lobbying against Summers was reportedly telling the White House she had "serious concerns" about him.
That's not to say Warren didn't have any impact: Her spot on the banking committee ensured that she would have a key vote against Summers, as several other Democratic senators on the committee had already publicly signaled their opposition. But for a senator who has been cast as the left's favorite champion for the middle class in Washington, Warren's relatively subdued role in bringing down Summers was surprising.
After Summers begrudgingly withdrew his name for consideration, Warren didn't celebrate or gloat. While noting she likely would have opposed his nomination, she praised him as a "brilliant economist."
"I don't think it's any secret that Larry is not my first choice. He's a brilliant economist who has made terrific contributions to the field of economics. I have no doubt that he's going to continue to do that in the future," she said on MSNBC Monday.
That's a far cry from some of the statements that came from progressive groups — and some of Warren's biggest cheerleaders — after Summers withdrew. Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said Summers would have been "an awful Fed chair" who "accepted millions in payments from Wall Street." The National Organization for Women, who has forcefully pushed for Yellen's nomination, had previously said Summers "can't be trusted to understand the everyday economic problems women face."
"She's been really good at picking and choosing her spots and fight for increased oversight so it's a bit surprising she took such a low-key approach when it comes to the Summers nomination," said Democratic strategist Jim Manley. "It seemed like a natural fit for her."
But the quiet approach has been part of Warren's larger strategy since she arrived on the Hill eight months ago. She's careful to only weigh in on the issues that matter most to her, and she refuses to stop and field questions from reporters in the hallways of the Capitol. Warren's office did not respond to BuzzFeed's request for comment.
NOW President Terry O'Neill said that even Warren's quiet engagement on Summers — like signing the letter supporting Yellen — made a big impact. O'Neill said she was thrilled with Warren's work on the issue.
"I'm not an elected official, I don't have to compromise and I don't. But elected officials have a different role to play," O'Neill said in an interview. "[Warren] is really intent on achieving goals, it's not how you look while you are doing it but and what are the means of achieving a goal."
"I think she is incredibly well respected and part of the reason she is so well respected is that she is evidenced based and thinks carefully about the policy. That's why she is such a star," O'Neill added.
Warren told Bloomberg TV that letting senators think thoughtfully about who should or should not be the next chair of the fed was an important part of the process.
"I don't think this has been a circus. I think what this has been has been thinking through the importance of the federal reserve chair position and who best fits that," she said. "People have raised legitimate questions, had good and thoughtful conversations, and that's where it's gone and that's the right thing to do."
Democrat Tulsi Gabbard and Republican Aaron Schock will try to shake Congress of its “old” label.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
Thos Robinson / Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Two words often come to mind when people think of Congress: dysfunctional and old.
But members of a new bipartisan caucus, spearheaded by Republican Aaron Schock and Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, are hoping to change that.
Shock and Gabbard, two of the only six members of Congress born in the 1980s, have teamed up to form the "Congressional Future Caucus," a group they hope will be able to come up with policy solutions with the millennial generation in mind.
"When I was elected, there were only four members of Congress under the age of 40, and now there are 40 of us," Schock, who arrived in Congress at the age of 27, told BuzzFeed. "That helps give the opportunity to make people think more long term. People in their thirties and forties look at life differently than people in their sixties or seventies."
As Congress leapfrogs from one short-term budget crisis to the next, the caucus members said they are focused on trying to think about the long term — a rarity these days.
"Clearly there is a lot of frustration that exists with Congress, and we feel like we have a responsibility to work together to be able to make progress for our country, but not just for the next six months or the next year, but really work together to find solutions for the next generation," Gabbard said. "Being in a position where you are constantly reacting to situations or playing defense is not where we want to be."
Gabbard said the caucus seemed like a natural next step for the younger members who have been elected in recent years. Often, she said, they are just as frustrated with the slow pace of the Hill as the public is.
"We have a high level of impatience and we're not going to just sit back and say well, this is going to take the next 10 or 20 years to accomplish," she said.
For four years, Schock was the youngest member of Congress; he said that when he arrived he brought the average age of the place down to 59.
"We need diversity in government," he said. "The long-term strategy has suffered as a result of the age of Congress. I've said before that if you took all the members under the age of 40 and locked them in a room, they'd be able to come up with solutions to our problems in 24 hours. Many of us are less interested in the institution and more interested in finding solutions."
So far, Schock said, Democrats Patrick Murphy and Joe Kennedy as well as Republican Todd Young have committed to joining.
The caucus was in part the brainchild of the Millennial Action Project, a nonprofit group dedicated to making "creative cooperation — rather than ideological conflict — the dominant mode of American political decision-making." The group approached Gabbard and Schock about the project, as the two had already been thinking about a way to create something for young members of Congress.
"Today's political gridlock is paralyzing our country and threatening our generation's future. That's why we've launched the Millennial Action Project to foster new post-partisan leaders and ideas, and it's why we're proud to work with the Congressional Future Caucus," said Steven Olikara, co-founder and president of MAP.
The initiative kicks off on Wednesday afternoon with a panel discussion with Gabbard, Schock, former U.S chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra, and Priceline's founding CTO Scott Case. It will be moderated by BuzzFeed's Washington bureau chief John Stanton.
In a new Vogue profile, the Kentucky libertarian’s mom Carol said her son is waiting until after the midterms to announce his 2016 presidential bid. “Rand says he won’t declare that he’s going to run until after 2014,” she said. “Groundwork has to be set.”
Gary Cameron / Reuters
Senator Rand Paul's mother suggested in a magazine interview that he will announce his 2016 presidential bid sometime after the 2014 midterm elections.
"Rand says he won't declare that he's going to run until after 2014," Carol Paul told Vogue in a new profile by Jason Horowitz on Rand Paul and his family. "Groundwork has to be set.
He told Fox News in August that he's considering a run, but wouldn't make a decision for "probably a year." His mother's latest comments suggest a more specific time frame for that decision.
Though Rand Paul has generally been quite open to the press, the Vogue interviews with his mother and his wife, Kelley, offer a new glimpse at the people around the likely presidential candidate. Kelley Paul, in the interview, offered some blunt talk about former President Bill Clinton, a potential first "first gentleman."
Kelley invoked the former president's affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
"I would say his behavior was predatory, offensive to women," she said.
Rand Paul told Horowitz he had a "gut feeling" that Hillary will not run for president as many have speculated.
The article offers a glimpse at the Paul family's home in Kentucky, where Rand works out in his Endless Pool and shows off the trunk of a Redwood tree he failed to grow, which he still keeps in his garage. It also notes the Paul's are grooming their sons into young libertarians via literature — one is reading 1984 by George Orwell and another just finished Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.
But one of the main focuses of the profile is Kelley Paul's behind-the-scenes value, in the Paul camp. It describes her as his "secret weapon."
Kelley is no political novice. She recently left the embattled Strategy Group for Media, where she worked on GOP Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign. Cruz is expected to be a top competitor of Paul's in 2016.
Now she serves on the board of Helping a Hero, a charity that builds houses for wounded war veterans, which the article says helps hedge Paul's anti-war stance to win favor with soldiers.
Rand Paul also admits that he relished in his public war of words with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another potential 2016 challenger.
"Paul gleefully notes to me that his latest Christie-baiting tweet is 'really going to escalate the war' between the two Republicans," Horowitz writes.
Former Republican state Sen. Jim Rubens is expected to announce his U.S. Senate campaign today. The rise of an economy with added opportunities for women has created “stress” for men, he says. Update: Rubens pulled his blog down after BuzzFeed published this report. Text of the post is below.
Reubens' opponent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Jim Cole / AP
WASHINGTON — Former New Hampshire state Sen. Jim Rubens is jumping into the race to defeat Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen Wednesday. Before he even reaches the starting blocks, Democrats are questioning his ability to reach women voters.
The reason? A 2009 post on his website that connects the rise of working women with what he says is a rise in mass shootings and other violence perpetrated by men.
"The collaborative, flexible, amorphously-hierarchical American economy is shutting out ordinary men who were once the nation's breadwinners in living-wage labor and manufacturing jobs," Rubens wrote. "Because status success is more vital to the male psychology, males are falling over the edge in increasing numbers."
A "collaborative" and "flexible" economy is one that has opened the door to more women working, Rubens wrote. And the nature of the changing economy has had a detrimental effect on men, including an increase in violence.
"The collapsing number of male jobs in the increasingly female-centric economy just adds to the already harsher impact of OverSuccess on males," he wrote, referring to the title of his 2008 book.
It's a view Rubens still holds today, and he seemed surprised in an interview Wednesday that anyone would care about it.
"The point of this, if you read the whole thing, is that manufacturing jobs, which have been the basis for higher-wage working men during the post-World War II era have been in decline," he said. "Men are more sensitive than women to external indicators of status, which is one of the points in my book — which you might want to read so you can understand the whole point of this — and it's very important to all people, women and men, to have jobs, functions, and roles in life that are fulfilling and productive and engaging."
The loss of manufacturing jobs that men often held in favor of "collaborative" jobs that favor women, Rubens said, "has increased stress in males."
"It's a tiny fraction of males that become stressed for whatever reason and engage in acts of extreme violence," he said. "If you look through individual psychology of mass shooters over the past 10-20 years, you can see that in the profile. Often its a person who has been subjected to extreme stress in the form of social rejection, job loss and associated mental health issues."
Tweaking the tax code to add manufacturing jobs would be one way to reduce this "stress" on men, Rubens said.
On paper, Rubens is something of a radical when it comes to Republican politics. He favors a carbon tax, is pro-choice, and supports same-sex marriage rights. But Democrats, who were pushing Rubens' website on reporters in advance of his official announcement Wednesday, think his musings on a perceived rise in violence like serial killings and mass shootings perpetrated by men will make him a tough sell to women.
"I am a moderate on social issues," he said. "I am not seeking to change the Roe v. Wade law as some Republicans have campaigned on in the past, and I am encouraging Republicans to focus on fiscal issues."
Rubens says he's a strong supporter of women going to work, and cites the fact that he has a female business partner. He said what men — and society — need are an increase in the kinds of manufacturing jobs that have gone away. Rubens says that would help decrease violence by men.
"If you read the ... posting, I don't see anything that causes anyone to conclude I'm seeking to in any way make a claim that it's not great that women have come up in the economy," he said. "My wife is my business partner so I know that it's fantastic that the economy has made a fulsome role for women as I was pointing out in the posting. We need to get manufacturing jobs back."
Adding those jobs "will help the problem identified in that posting," he said. He also called for mental health reforms, "decreasing the cost and increasing the quality" of care. Rubens said Shaheen's vote for Obamacare was a vote that added to the mental health care problem, as well as added the kind of stress to men that leads to violence.
"[Obamacare] is contributing to a conversion of full-time jobs to part-time jobs. This is causing serious threats to working families," he said. "The source of this sudden interest in a post I wrote five years ago, I know where that's coming from. It's coming from my opponent, Jeanne Shaheen, who is the cause, personally, as the 60th vote of Obamacare, of this stress on working families."
The Texas governor and former presidential candidate’s appearance next month follows endorsements from Sen. Rand Paul and Gov. Chris Christie.
AP
AP
Steve Lonegan has already been endorsed by two Republican big shots — Sen. Rand Paul and Gov. Chris Christie — and next month, the New Jersey senate candidate will get a boost from another national GOP name: Rick Perry.
Perry, a former presidential hopeful who is wrapping up his last term as governor of Texas, will endorse Lonegan at an event in New Jersey on Oct. 1, the campaign confirmed Wednesday morning. A Lonegan aide said Perry is also expected to attend a fundraiser for the candidate during his visit to the Garden State.
Lonegan, the Republican nominee in the New Jersey special election, is trying to close a wide gap in the polls against Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark. According to a recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll, Booker leads Lonegan by 35 points.
Lonegan's policy views may edge toward the far-right wing of the Republican Party, but his campaign has received steady support throughout the special election from some of the biggest names in the mainstream GOP — backing his campaign attributes to a "unified Republican Party."
In the last month, Christie and Paul, two possible presidential candidates in 2016, stumped for Lonegan. The governor, who barely campaigned for his close friend Joe Kyrillos when he ran for Senate last year, surprised many with his in-person endorsement in Hunterdon County late last month.
Perry, who has hinted he may vie for the White House again in three years, has clashed with Lonegan in the past. In 2011, the Senate candidate claimed Perry did not "stick to his guns" after calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" — a view Lonegan shares.
And it will be called The Weiner Monologues . A devised Greek tragedy.
A scene from the 2011 play.
Throwing shade.
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
“Where there are failures, we will correct them. We owe the victims, their families, and all of our people nothing less.”
Yuri Gripas / Reuters
Department of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is ordering a review of security at military installations in the wake of Monday's deadly shooting at the Washington Navy Yard that killed 12 people. Hagel, speaking at the Pentagon Wednesday, said the military owed the victims of the shooting and their families "nothing less."
"Yesterday I directed two department-wide reviews. These reviews will be lead by Deputy Secretary Ash Carter, and we will do everything possible to prevent this from happening again," Hagel said.
"First I directed a review of physical security and access procedures at all DOD (Department of Defense) installations worldwide. The highest responsibilities leaders have is to take care of their people, and our people deserve safe and secure workplaces, wherever they are," Hagel continued. "Second, Deputy Secretary Carter will also lead a review of DOD's practices and procedures for granting and reviewing security clearances, including those by contractors. This review will be closely coordinated with other federal agencies currently examining these procedures."
Hagel said that an independent panel would be established to also conduct its own review of security at Department of Defense facilities and provide him with the findings.
"I have also directed that an independent panel be established," Hagel said. "This independent panel will conduct its own assessment of security at DOD facilities and our security clearance procedures and practices. The panel's work will strengthen Secretary Carter's efforts and they will provide their findings directly to me. The Department of Defense will carefully examine their assessments, conclusions and recommendations of these reviews, and we will effectively implement them. As you know, the navy is also conducting its own review, and those results will feed into the broader DOD review worldwide."
Hagel said that the Department of Defense owed such a review to the victims of Monday's tragedy.
"Where there are gaps, we will close them. Where there are inadequacies, we will address them, and where there are failures, we will correct them. We owe the victims, their families, and all of our people nothing less."
“Bill de Blasio has been a friend to both President Clinton and Secretary Clinton for many years.”
Wesley Hitt / Getty Images
In a joint statement from their respective spokesmen, Bill and Hillary Clinton endorsed Bill de Blasio for mayor of New York City.
"Bill de Blasio has been a friend to both President Clinton and Secretary Clinton for many years," read the statement from Matt McKenna, a spokesman for President Clinton, and Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Secretary Clinton. "They were proud to see him run a thoughtful, creative campaign about the issues, and they are behind him as he moves on to the general election as the Democratic nominee."
The endorsement comes two days after de Blasio officially secured the Democratic nomination in the mayoral race.
Throughout this year's long primary contest, the Clintons did not weigh in on the crowded Democratic field. After Anthony Weiner, the husband of Hillary Clinton's closest aide, got in the race in May, both Clintons said they would not be making any primary endorsements, citing ties to multiple candidates.
De Blasio, who said last week that the couple had offered him "extraordinarily helpful advice," served as Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign manager.
On Monday, former comptroller Bill Thompson, who placed second in the primary, said he would withdraw from the race and not fight for a possible runoff election. Although the Board of Elections has yet to release an official vote count, de Blasio last week just barely cleared the 40% threshold required to avoid a primary runoff.
After Thompson conceded the race and endorsed de Blasio, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced her support as well.
The band Man Man and its frontman Ryan Kattner have a healthy obsession with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. Kattner wore a Wolf Blitzer-themed outfit at Restoration Festival in Troy, New York, in early September.
According to Man Man frontman Ryan Kattner, the band's song "End Boss," which is the tale of a sneaky wolf, is based on Wolf Blitzer. In Kattner's song the wolf sneaks into a home to eat baby.
Via facebook.com
Via facebook.com
Via facebook.com
The Ambien story arc of the Morning Joe soap opera could also double as the second -most innovative product placement in the history of cable news.
They are just like the same person.
Labor Department announces that same-sex couples’ marriages will be recognized under ERISA, regardless of whether the couples’ home states recognize their marriage.
Mel Evans / AP
WASHINGTON — The Labor Department announced Wednesday that federal laws governing private employee pension and related benefit plans will be interpreted to recognize all legal marriages of same-sex couples, regardless of where the couple is living currently.
The decision to utilize a "place of celebration" rule, rather than a "place of domicile" rule follows the lead set by the Treasury Department in recognizing marriages for purposes of the tax code so long as they were legal in the state where the marriage was granted.
In part, the guidance issued by the Labor Department about Secretary Thomas Perez's interpretation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and related regulations on Wednesday states:
Following consultation with the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury and other appropriate federal executive agencies, the Department of Labor (Department) is issuing this Technical Release to provide guidance to employee benefit plans, plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, and plan participants and beneficiaries on the meaning of "spouse" and "marriage" as these terms appear in the provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and the Internal Revenue Code that the Department interprets.
Specifically, the guidance explains:
In general ... the term "spouse" will be read to refer to any individuals who are lawfully married under any state law, including individuals married to a person of the same sex who were legally married in a state that recognizes such marriages, but who are domiciled in a state that does not recognize such marriages. Similarly, the term "marriage" will be read to include a same-sex marriage that is legally recognized as a marriage under any state law. This is the most natural reading of those terms; it is consistent with Windsor, in which the plaintiff was seeking tax benefits under a statute that used the term "spouse"; and a narrower interpretation would not further the purposes of the relevant statutes and regulations.
The guidance is part of the federal government's response to the Supreme Court's June ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act's ban on recognizing same-sex couples' marriages.
Environmental activists wore tinfoil hats to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing today, which was titled “The Obama Administration’s Climate Change Policies and Activities.” The Sierra Club tweeted , “Hey, @RepFredUpton - these folks at the hearing have your hat for you when you are done. #ActOnClimate #Denierpalooza.”
“I’m not sure about the NATO part of it,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
John Gara Photoshop of MCT Photo
A small group of conservative Republicans have forced their leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor to toe the ideological line. “They could have and they should have come to us first,” Tea Party conservative Rep. John Fleming says.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Speaker John Boehner.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
WASHINGTON — If there was any question who's setting the agenda and direction of the Republican Party in the House it was answered Wednesday when, after forcing Speaker John Boehner to agree to once again attempt to defund Obamacare, Rep. Steve Stockman thanked fellow Tea Partier Rep. Tom Graves — and not the man ostensibly sitting atop the GOP's top perch.
"[Americans] want to defund ObamaCare and keep the government open. Thank you to Tom Graves and others who worked to make this happen," Stockman said in a press release blasted out to national media. "Republicans should listen to the people who gave them control of the House to stop ObamaCare. If we don't stop ObamaCare, voters will find someone who will."
Stockman's snub of Boehner was remarkable beyond the fact that he ditched the traditional approach of publicly bowing to leadership after winning a concession. As speaker, Boehner is supposed to not only set the agenda for the entire House but as the most powerful elected Republican in the country, he's the party's philosophical course.
But with a gang of 30 to 40 Tea Party members willing to openly defy him, Boehner finds himself very much on the outside looking in when it comes to the agenda, working overtime to contain the chaos that has become the GOP. And with conservatives forcing Boehner to swallow their demands for another vote on defunding Obamacare as the price for even considering not shutting down the government, it's been on full display this week.
One of those conservatives, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who has been a thorn in Boehner's side, said that the group of members who opposed Boehner's original plan to avoid a shutdown were becoming increasingly effective.
"This is what we said we were going to do and this will be the first time in 2 years and 9 months that we are going to vote on defunding on a must-pass legislation," he said. "[Leadership] didn't want to vote on this, and that was pretty clear they didn't want to fight on it. We want to see them stand on some principles and give us assurance they'll fight. They couldn't even get the rule approved."
That such a small group of Republicans could have such a dramatic impact on the conference is a lesson Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Whip Kevin McCarthy have had to learn over and over again.
Most recently, the original government funding plan leadership concocted would have defunded Obamacare but eventually allowed the Senate to pass a "clean" continuing resolution into law. They felt they had given Republicans what they wanted, plus they would be able avoid a government shutdown and save leverage for an October debt ceiling fight. A group of members balked, claiming this was nothing more than procedural trickery, leaving Boehner and Cantor deeply frustrated and at a loss for what to do next.
"Do you have an idea?" he asked reporters last week when questioned about a new plan. "They'll just shoot it down anyway."
And that's not a dynamic that's lost on Boehner's opponents. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Wednesday afternoon gleefully tweeted "Today @SpeakerBoehner surrendered the gavel to the Tea Party's desperate attempts to put insurance companies back in charge of health care" to her more than 385,000 followers.
A senior Republican aide said the criticisms of the House leadership were unfair as key tools of persuasion are no longer a part of the whipping process, making "the House more open, more transparent, and more difficult to manage."
"This is just math. We have 233 House Republican members. The majority in the House is currently 217," said the aide, noting that it is usually 218 votes but there are two vacancies. "That means a small group of Members can gum up the works on any vote. There are fewer and fewer tools available to leadership. Earmarks are gone – which is a good thing, but it has consequences. Taking away committee assignments hasn't made members any likelier to vote 'yes' – and, frankly, no one has a plausible suggestion for what would do the trick. The world simply changed. It's made the House more open, more transparent, and more difficult to manage."
Conservatives coalesced around the Graves bill, and the speaker was eventually left with no choice but to embrace it. And by Wednesday morning, that's what he was doing.
"We've got a lot of divergent opinions in the caucus, and the key to any leadership job is to listen," he said when asked if had lost control of his conference. "You know, I was here during the Gingrich era. He had a little plaque that was in his office, and it was management motto, "Listen, learn, help and lead." We listened to our colleagues over the course of the last week. We have a plan that they're happy with. We're going forward."
Rep. John Fleming, a Louisiana Republican, said that the conference was initially confused as to why leadership came to them with a plan they likely knew members would oppose.
"We know why it failed, it didn't really have a sincere attempt to pass, so that's the reason why leadership knows the rank and file here and constituents want a real attempt to defund Obamacare, not the sleight of hand, not cosmetic, and they got the message again loud and clear," he said. "They could have and they should have come to us first. I think for most of us, we don't understand why they formulated it the way they did."
Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar suggested that Boehner and Cantor might have an easier time if they had allowed the conference to come up with the plan together in the first place.
"Everything was messier when you have to pull things off the table," he said. You have to have the dialogue. Leadership is coming together and coming up with common denominators, share where you are going with people, engage them, get their support and away you go."
Rep. Aaron Schock Wednesday said that ultimately, there's little leadership can do if it's members are not inclined to anything other than partisan warfare.
"Leadership is a reflection of their members. If the majority of our members are bomb throwers, our leadership has no other choice but to acquiesce," Schock lamented.
You might need a shower after watching this.
