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(If you can put up with listening, here's Ingraham and Boehner's discussion)
It had to happen. Republicans are turning on each other as this idiotic debt ceiling drama plays out. Earlier today a staffersent out emails attacking Boehner's plan and the leadership found out.
House GOP leaders spent Wednesday afternoon trying to smooth over deep divisions in their party that erupted into public view after a heated conference meeting in which Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (OH) was dressed down for an aide's attacks on Speaker John Boehner's (OH) debt-limit proposal.
During the morning meeting, Jordan professed not to know about his top staffer's e-mails to outside conservative groups complaining about Boehner's proposal and urging the groups to launch coordinated assaults on the plan and its lack of a balanced budget component.
Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), read the text of the e-mail he said that Paul Teller, the RSC's top staffer, sent to outside activists and upbraided Teller for using information in a closed-door GOP conference meeting against Boehner and GOP leaders. One GOP staffer, however, told TPM the email referenced above was not sent by Paul Teller, despite reports to the contrary.
RSC spokesman Brian Straessle apologized in a statement, saying: "This action was clearly inappropriate and was not authorized by the Chairman or any other members of the staff. This has never been -- and never will be -- the way we do business at the RSC."
And guess who's backing Boehner's plan?
Afterward, Cantor told the members it was disappointing to see Republicans fighting with each other on TV when he expected to see them fighting with Democrats. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke out in favor of Boehner's plan. Cantor will attend a meeting with House GOP freshmen Wednesday afternoon.
Discussions are now underway about "staff changes" at the RSC, a powerful group of fiscal conservatives within the conference, but Jordan afterward received strong support from likeminded members.
You know Ryan, Cantor and Boehner are slaves to Wall Street so at this point Boehner is in open revolt against the base of his caucus as he told Laura Ingraham that the Tea Party wants chaos to rain down us all to force their balanced budget garbage.
In case you were wondering about that zombie death cult thing:
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said today that some members of his own caucus who are refusing to agree to a compromise debt ceiling deal are hoping to unleash “chaos” and thus force the White House and Senate Democrats to make bigger concessions than they’re already offering. As many as 40 House Republicans, especially Tea Party members and freshmen, have demanded nothing short of changing the Constitution to include a balanced budget amendment before they would vote to raise debt ceiling, even though that has zero chance before the U.S. faces potential default on Aug. 2.
Speaking on conservative radio host Laura Ingraham’s show this morning, Boehner agreed that failing to raise the limit before the deadline would be devastating, and said the “chaos” plan won’t work when asked by Ingraham what’s motivating the recalcitrant Republicans:
BOEHNER: Well, first they want more. And my goodness, I want more too. And secondly, a lot of them believe that if we get past August the second and we have enough chaos, we could force the Senate and the White House to accept a balanced budget amendment. I’m not sure that that — I don’t think that that strategy works. Because I think the closer we get to August the second, frankly, the less leverage we have vis a vis our colleagues in the Senate and the White House.
These folks aren't in the business of doing Wall Street's bidding. They're in the business of bringing the system down to create their own new order, no different from a Maoist or Leninist revolutionary on the other side of the aisle. It's a market fundamentalist cult. They are a sizable and growing minority of the Republican caucus, and the ones who don't toe their line are terrified their heads will be the next to fall before the Tea Party guillotine.
All the grand poobah's of the GOP are supporting Boehner's plan now like Bill Kristol, WSJ, Grover Norquist, Allen West and many others.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have come out against Boehner's plan. I do believe Boehner is going to need Democratic votes to pass his bill so we'll see what happens. And don''st forget R-Mike Lee telling Chris Matthews he forcing default if he doesn't get his way.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Monday that he is giving Congress ten days to pass a constitutional amendment that would make raising taxes nearly impossible. And if he doesn’t get what he wants, he will do everything in his power to force the U.S. to default on its debts.
