Boehner Spirals Deeper Into Irrelevancy as He ‘Leads’ a cabal That Refuses to Follow

He was totally irrelevant to begin with anyway

 

The Washington Post’s latest whip count on the resolution to authorize force in Syria reveals just how irrelevant Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor have become in the repugican dominated House. While the two men are the nominal leaders of the repugican cabal House caucus, the word “leaders” at this point is simply a technical term to define two politically impotent figure heads, as neither man is capable of exercising any real leadership over the recalcitrant repugican cabal members in the House. Boehner and Cantor head one direction, the rest of the party lurches the other way.
The upcoming Syria resolution vote illustrates in stark terms how inept the supposed leaders of the repugican caucus have become. Boehner and Cantor were quick to support Obama’s call to action on Syria, putting partisan politics aside for a common national purpose. Yet, they have demonstrated that they have lost control of their own caucus, because the number of repugican representatives who have chosen to join them in support of the policy can almost be counted on one hand. Of the 232 House repugicans not named Cantor or Boehner, a grand total of six of them, have joined in expressing support for the authorization of force in Syria.  Bohner and Cantor no longer preside over the House repugican Caucus, they merely preside over half a dozen repugican men- Tim Cotton (AR), Adam Kinzinger (IL), Luke Messer (IN), Mike Pompeo (KS), Mike Rogers (MI),  and Peter King (NY).  Boehner and Cantor lead three little known congressional back benchers, Rogers, Cotton and the rabidly islamophobic Peter King.  While 62 repugican House members are still listed as undecided, 164 of them are firm no votes or leaning no votes. So the score is Cantor and Boehner 6, the forces of cabal mutiny 164.
While the vote has not been held yet, it is pretty clear at this point that  an overwhelming  majority of the repugican House is poised to vote against their cabal’s House leadership on the Syria resolution. The tea party mutiny is underway once again. Boehner has struggled to corral his caucus on bipartisan measures time and again.
Earlier this year he failed to bring immigration reform to the floor because a majority of his caucus was opposed and he chose not to violate the so-called “Hastert Rule”, which is invoked to prevent bringing legislation up for a vote if more repugicans will vote against a bill than for it. On three other occasions, Boehner has brought votes to the floor that have failed to gain a majority of repugican support in the House chamber. For example, when Boehner agreed to bring re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) up for a vote, 138 repugicans voted “no” while only 87 (including Boehner) voted “yes” to pass the bill designed to curb domestic violence against women.
Boehner lost control of the repugican caucus long ago. The upcoming Syria vote is simply confirmation of what is already well known in Washington. The repugican cabal House leadership has completely squandered their control over the repugican caucus, and as the mutiny spreads within the repugican ranks, Boehner and Cantor are spiraling deeper and deeper into political irrelevancy.