Curt wrote “Boehner Plans Amnesty Sellout To Pelosi” on 1 Dec 14. Vince wrote “Surrender: Why does anyone ever vote for the Republican Party – at least one run by Boehner & McConnell?” on 14 Dec 14. And Curt wrote “Floor Drama: Boehner Embarrassment As House Nearly Kills Omnibus On Procedural Vote” on 11 Dec 14. So Flopping Aces has done a good job of documenting John Boehner’s ineffectiveness as House speaker.
Not satisfied with the damage he’s already done, there’s this action by Boehner:
In the final days before the start of the new Congress, House Speaker John Boehner and the Republican establishment are quietly purging strong fiscal conservatives from prominent budget and finance committees.
Now today (2 Jan 15) we get evidence of just how dissatisfied with Boehner we conservatives are. In a national telephone poll conducted on 26-30 Dec 14 of 602 people who identified themselves as Republican voters and independents who lean Republican and voted Republican in 2014, the following results were obtained:
| Select John Boehner as House Speaker | |
|---|---|
| John Boehner, definitely | 11% |
| Boehner, probably | 15% |
| Someone new, definitely | 34% |
| Someone new, probably | 26% |
| Don’t Know/Undecided | 15% |
Notice that the “Someone new, definitely” category has the greatest response, and that the two “Someone new” categories comprise 60%, a clear majority.
Consider the responses to these statements:
| Speaker Boehner has been ineffective in opposing President Obama’s agenda. | |
|---|---|
| Strongly agree | 29% |
| Somewhat agree | 35% |
| Somewhat disagree | 15% |
| Strongly disagree | 9% |
| Don’t know/no response | 12% |
This means that 64% of us think Boehner is ineffective.
| House Speaker John Boehner has the best interests of the American public at heart, rather than special interests. | |
|---|---|
| Strongly agree | 9% |
| Somewhat agree | 34% |
| Somewhat disagree | 23% |
| Strongly disagree | 20% |
| Don’t know/no response | 13% |
Wow! A similar number of us (43% to 43%) think Boehner puts special interests ahead of us as not. On a salary of $233,500, his net worth is about $3,588,556. Not bad for government work.
Now consider these results:
| Where would you place yourself on a scale where 1 means very conservative and 7 means very liberal? | |
|---|---|
| 1 | 25% |
| 2 | 17% |
| 3 | 23% |
| 4 | 16% |
| 5 | 9% |
| 6 | 4% |
| 7 | 4% |
| Don’t know | 3% |
FWIW, the mean response is 2.94, so this poll is not primarily fire-breathing conservatives.
| Do you consider yourself to be a supporter or opponent of the Tea Party movement? | |
|---|---|
| Strong supporter | 22% |
| Not strong supporter | 35% |
| Not strong opponent | 14% |
| Strong opponent | 8% |
| Don’t know/no response | 20% |
While the “Strong supporter” category can be interpreted as “very conservative,” they are far from the majority of respondents. This poll represents “Republicans,” not the TEA Party.
The poll was commissioned by the People’s Poll and supervised by Caddell Associates. Yes, Pat Caddell is a Democrat, so these results cannot be dismissed as some “hack job.” The poll has a Margin of Error of +/- 4.00 percentage points.
That Boehner is not conservative – fiscally or socially – is not in doubt. As Lester Jackson wrote:
Conservatives find it especially galling — and intolerable — to have a Speaker who (a) shows utter contempt for the representatives whose election resulted in his ascension to power; and (b) does everything he can to subvert the wishes, interests and values of these representatives and their constituents.
BTW, “Republican” doesn’t necessarily mean “conservative.” After all, Boehner has demonstrated beyond a doubt that he’s a RINO. But we have to start identification somewhere. Since we know that conservative Democrats are very rare, “Republican” will have to do for now.
Cross-posted at The Pot Stirrer