Speaker Boehner has sent the wingnuts into a frenzy by suggesting that he may ignore the “Hastert Rule” when it comes to guns and immigration. The Hastert Rule is the belief that no legislation should be allowed to come up for a vote without the support of a majority of the House repugican caucus. Boehner said, “Listen: It was never a rule to begin with. And certainly my prerogative – my intention is to always pass bills with strong repugican support.”
Boehner’s comments suggest that he is planning on allowing votes on gun legislation and immigration reform without the support of a majority of his caucus. Leadership definitely wants immigration reform passed, so it looks like the Speaker will once again rely on majority Democratic support to get a major piece of legislation through the House.
Hot Air is already nervous and warning that Boehner could set off a rebellion among the base, “He’s violated the Hastert Rule several times on budgetary matters, most notably the fiscal-cliff deal (and as recently as two days ago), but caving on cultural hot-buttons like background checks and amnesty has the makings of a Category Five shinolastorm among the base.”
On his radio show, the perpetually in puberty sounding Mark Levin called Boehner a political coward for allowing these votes to happen.
Audio from Media Matters:
Levin said, “The Speaker of the House has enormous power determining what votes take place in that body. And he’s made it clear, he’s made it clear that he is prepared to allow the Democrats to have a victory by bringing a bill to the floor, not only on the Second Amendment, but on illegal immigration, and on the budget, and he’s done this time and time and again. They talk about regular order. Do you know what regular order is ladies and gentleman?…Turns out he’s a coward, a political coward.”What the right is melting down about is the fact that Boehner is willing to allow the House to act like a democratic institution by voting on something. The wingnut movement is outraged because the House will likely get a chance to vote on legislation where there is broad public support for the Democratic position on the issue.
According to the folks on the fringe, John Boehner is a caving political coward because he may allow the House of Representatives to reflect the will of a majority of the people on guns and immigration.
The wingnut movement and their media are completely oblivious to the fact that they have lost the majority of the country on almost every major issue. All it took was the suggestion that legislation relating to these issues may be voted on to trigger an extremist backlash.
For much of the Republican rank and file and their media leaders obstruction is governance.
The Republican Party is drowning in quicksand of its own creation, and this time John Boehner might not be able to save them from going under.
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