During his address at the Value Voters Summit on Friday, Marco Rubio cut into his prepared speech to break the news of House Speaker John Boehner’s resignation. Immediately upon hearing the word, the crowd erupted into wild applause! Many of the religious conservatives cheered the Speaker’s sudden exit, taking credit for the downfall of a man reviled by the radical right as too liberal to lead.
The conference attendees couldn’t have been more lighthearted and gay … as in happier, that is. Their beloved party would be moving further to the right. Said one Republican, “This just proves that the whole problem with us Republicans is that we’re not conservative enough. Now we may have a chance to get something done!”
Sen. Ted Cruz, another Republican presidential candidate at the conference, hinted that the Senate needs a shake-up as well. “With all due respect to Majority Leader McConnell, he’s a wuss. He needs to grow a pair.” Cruz stopped short of an outright plea to fellow Senate Republicans to ditch Mitch.
The prospect of a more conservative House was too much for some Republicans to handle. “Wow,” rejoiced a conference member, “this is truly a great day! The new leadership’s first order of business should be the repeal of Obamacare.” When reminded that the Boehner-led House passed 56 bills to repeal Obamacare; that every House Republican voted for every single bill; that such a bill could not pass the Senate or survive a presidential veto, the Republican was asked what more could Boehner have done? “He could have passed a new repeal Obamacare bill ever week,” he said, “56 repeal bills in four years isn’t a heck of a lot!”
Whoever the House Republicans pick as their new leader, you can be sure he will not be conservative enough for a cadre of rabid Republican reps. Their immediate goal seems to be a government shutdown over the funding of Planned Parenthood, something Boehner was opposed to. But the long term goal seems to be no less than to limit the power of the Federal government to just one function … funding the military.
As Saint Reagan famously said, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem!” Oh, the law of unintended consequences! Ronnie must be rolling over.
Post Script: Yesterday, Sen. Ted Cruz won the Values Voter Summit straw poll for the third year in a row . With a whopping 35% in the poll of summit-goers, he finished ahead of runner-up Ben Carson’s 18%. Donald Trump finished a disappointing fifth with 5% support.
Photo | AP/Huffingtonpost.com
Just goes to show how cray cray this party is. 35% for an absolute neo-con facist is scary. I pray for this country.
The “values voters” are Christian fundamentalists, the equivalent of the Taliban. I wouldn’t expect anything less from those nut jobs.
We dislike Boehner, but are very concerned about Congressional teabaggers going free range.
That the radicals in his caucus think he’s liberal is a hoot! Let the anarchists have free rein. They will bury themselves.