Is the GOP Headed for Implosion? - Granite Grok

Is the GOP Headed for Implosion?

Boehner The Clown

House Speaker John Boehner took part in an interview with Fox News this week and one of the topics, invariably, was VP-pick, Paul Ryan.  During the interview, Greta Van Susteren challenged Boehner about Ryan’s votes for TARP, the auto bailouts, and two 2008 stimulus programs, asking how, as a Conservative, he politically “sells that”.

Boehner responded with just about the stupidest, yet telling, remark possible…

He called Paul Ryan a “practical conservative” (there’s a term we may hear a lot of in the coming four years) and declared that he is not a “knuckle dragger“.

Take that, Tea Party – you just got officially thrown under the bus by Mr. Speaker, himself.

And people wonder why Ron Paul supporters STILL have trouble swallowing an establishment candidate, like Romney.

Thinking back over the past 2-3 years, you have to wonder how Boehner could be so careless with his words.  I mean, the House Speakership was practically handed to him on a silver platter, courtesy of the Tea Party (ah, but it was “his turn” after all, right?).  The conversation and tone in the country has shifted dramatically to the right, thanks to the modern “one third” of Americans who are paying attention and are willing to take a stand and fight for what they believe in.

Let’s look at a few things made possible by the Tea Party, and the changes it caused in the political landscape :  Scott Brown, Nikki Haley, Ron Johnson, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Fox News overtaking all other Cable networks in viewers.  There is also the army of “wannabee candidates”, who aren’t so conservative, but are desperate to have the “Tea Party” label affixed to their campaign.  I will also remind Boehner that in 2010, Republicans turned over legislatures in all but two states, including the complete (and most dramatic) flip of power in the New Hampshire legislature.

In the glow of the 2010 election victories, Senator Jim DeMint (video with ads @1:53) said “I hope that by 2012, Americans will know what Republicans stand for, and my hope is it’s in alignment with this new idea, which is really an old idea, of constitutional, limited government.

Senator DeMint, I can only imagine your frustration as you sit there and listen to the Speaker of the House put down the very people (a small army, no less) who vocally espouse a smaller, less intrusive and destructive Federal government, and, through whose labor and determination, helped bring it back to the front burner of American consciousness.

I think we have enough history and evidence, especially with this “knuckle dragger” comment, that Boehner was, and is, the wrong person for the job, and had no interests in furthering the “Tea Party” movement, which propelled him into his position of “leadership”.  I suspect his only intent was to protect himself from appearing too bold and too determined to address the critical survival of his country.  The reason for this is either the preservation of his special interests, or the fact that he is essentially incapable of defending any bold action (I suggest both).  Boehner is just another example of how the national, establishment GOP has diluted itself over the past 20 years into a “conservative-lite, main street” party – and I use the term “conservative” loosely.

Like the erudite, yet passive John Dickinson of the Continental Congress, who refused to sign the Declaration of Independence in a tone of reconciliation with Great Britain, I hope Boehner is forced to leave Congress and settle back into private life; Richard Henry Lee would do just fine.

H/T: Bob Livingston

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