House Speaker John Boehner is cracking the whip.
“Get your ass in line,” Boehner demanded at a closed-door meeting of the entire House Republican conference this morning. “I can’t do this job unless you are behind me.”
According to Republicans at the meeting, Boehner made an impassioned plea for his debt ceiling plan is the very best that Republicans could hope to achieve even as he acknowledged that it falls short of spending cuts that most of them want.
Boehner’s “ass in line” speech seemed to have an impact. Republicans emerged from the meeting appearing to be more unified.
At least a few of them who went into the meeting opposed to Boehner’s plan, including archconservative presidential candidate Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., came out saying they would support it.
One freshman Republican, Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas, who had expressed concern over the plan, said he is starting to come around in support of the bill now that he has realized “you can’t get everything in one fell swoop.”
“I’ve moved from ‘lean no,’ to undecided to ‘lean yes.’” Farenthold said. “It’s just a matter of we gotta take what we can get from a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate.”
“You gotta claim a win when you can claim a win. A football game is a great example. Cut, Cap, and Balance was a touchdown hail marry pass. Let’s take what we can get. Take the five yards to get the first down and fight the next battle,” he added. “I’ve shifted to leaning yes from leaning no…You don’t let the perfect get in the way of the doable.”
If Boehner’s plan is passed, and accepted by the Senate and the President, it will be a monumental failure in the eyes of conservatives, and he, himself, will have shown that he has a gummi worm of a backbone. Stupid, stupid, stupid.