This morning, Boehner-- once banished from the GOP leadership for handing out bribery checks on behalf of tobacco lobbyists on the floor of the House (see video above)-- was elected to his third term as Speaker of the House. "I'll never di it again," whined Boehner, when caught. "It's a bad practice; we ought to stop this." In 1923, another 3-term Republican Speaker, Frederick Gillett (R-MA), was elected Speaker for the last time. (He left the House to run for a Senate seat, which he won.) Gillett was opposed by progressives, who rallied around Henry Cooper (R-WI) and it took 9 ballots spread out over 3 days for him to clinch his victory. There were 22 Republicans voting against Gillett. There has been no second ballot required to elect a Speaker since then.No one really expected clowns like Gohmert, Yoho or Taliban Dan to be elected Speaker; the game was always to push for a second ballot so that someone with what passes for GOP gravitas could jump in-- a Huelskamp or Hensarling, for example. For the right-wing extremists opposed to Boehner, they would have had to have rallied 29 Republicans to vote no and make it into a real contest. In the end, they managed to get 25 votes against Boehner.More than a few Republican candidates boasted on the campaign trail just a few months ago that they would work against reelecting Boehner. Among the new freshmen who told their constituents they would oppose Boehner were Dave Brat (VA), Gary Palmer (AL), Jody Hice (GA), John Ratcliffe (TX), Mark Walker (NC), Glen Grothman (WI) and Barry Loudermilk (GA). Brat and Palmer were quick to jump on the anti-Boehner train and announce they were voting against him. The others all voted for him. Tom Massie was disappointed and said that Republican freshman who voted for Boehner should be "worried... they violated a campaign oath in the first 30 minutes of being a Member." Erick Erickson flipped out when Grothman turned out to be a liar:
The reason people are so deeply cynical about politics is because they rally around candidates who say bold things only to see those candidates immediately cave once secured in their position.Behold Glenn Grothman, a Congressman from Wisconsin.“I would have no problem looking for an alternative to Speaker Boehner,” Grothman said in a candidate debate Aug. 1. “I have no problem standing up to Republican leadership.”He now says he will vote for Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) There will be no standing up by Glenn Grothman. Elections have a way of voluntarily and willingly neutering congressmen.
Tom Massie nominated Yoho; Jim Bridenstine nominated Gohmert and Steve King nominated Taliban Dan. Sarah Palin urged her supporters to back Gohmert, who got 3 votes in total (including his own). But the first vote against Boehmer was from Justin Amash who voted for Jim Jordan (R-OH). Stockman's successor, Brian Babib (R-TX) was the next, voting "present." Then it was Iowa freshman Rod Blum, who voted for Taliban Dan. Dave Brat cast his vote for Jeff Duncan (R-SC) and, obviously, Bridenstine voted for Gohmert. The first nut to vote for someone outside the Chamber was deranged Florida multimillionaire Curt Clawson, who voted for Senator Rand Paul. [Nashville Blue Dog Jim Cooper voted for Colin Powell again this year, instead of Nancy Pelosi. The next Blue Dog piece shit to vote against Pelosi was, predictably, Gwen Graham, who voted for Cooper; she's going to be a real nightmare in Congress.] And speaking of Tennessee's fine delegation of right-wing kooks, Scott DesJarlais, the doctor who was drugging and raping his female patients-- and still got reelected-- joined Amash to vote for Jim Jordan. Jeff Duncan voted for fellow South Carolinian extremist Trey Gowdy. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) then voted for Webster, followed by the only House GOP moderate, Chris Gibson (R-NY) voting for Kevin McCarthy. Paul Gosar voted for Webster and Gohmert voted for himself. Huelskamp voted for Taliban Dan, as did Walter Jones and Steve King (R-IA). Massie, of course, voted for Yoho. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and then Rich Nugent (R-FL) and Bill Posey (R-FL) went for Taliban Dan. Gary Palmer (R-AL) was the next defector and he went for home-state racist Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. Scott Rigell (R-VA), who isn't an extremist, gave his vote to Taliban Dan, angry, he said later, that Boehner gives Congress too many long vacations. As best I can tell, Arizona wing-nut Matt Salmon just refused to respond when his name was called, grimacing and folding his arms. He didn't even vote "present." Marlin Stutzman went for Taliban Dan (as did Taliban Dan himself) and Randy Weber voted for fellow Texan Louie Gohmert. Yoho also voted for himself. In all-- 25 Republicans voted against Boehner, not enough to defeat him but more than any other Speaker lost since Gillett in 1923.In 2011, 19 Democrats voted against outgoing speaker Nancy Pelosi who had already lost her post by virtue of losing the House majority in the 2010 election. This year defecting anti-Pelosi Democrats were Blue Dog assholes Dan Lipinski, Jim Cooper, Kyrsten Sinema and Gwen Graham.The Speaker's first official duty was to swear-in all the new members in one giant clusterfuck in the chamber. Then Boehner moved immediately to revenge. He had put Taliban Dan on the Rules Committee, a position of trust, when he was a freshman. He kicked him-- and one of his supporters, Nugent-- off the committee a couple hours after the votes were counted.
