For all of his silly putty spine finagling, bending over for Obama, manipulation of the RNC votes, and basic lack of leadership, John Boehner has been re-elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives. The final score was Boehner 220, Pelosi 192, and all others 15. Raul Labrador, Jim Jordan, Justin Amash, and David Walker each received a vote for Speaker; former Rep. Allen West attracted two tallies, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor garnered three. It would have just taken just 16 dissenters to have kept him from re-election.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this the man that just led the House in taxing you more this year!
The Ohio Republican needed the support of at least 214 House members (there were 427 present today) and just after 1:20 p.m. ET he passed that mark. As expected, the voting was partisan — former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received solid support from her fellow Democrats, who are in the minority in the House. Also as expected, Boehner didn’t get the votes of some of those conservative critics.
A thumbs-up in thanks: Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on the floor of the House today. Enlarge imageBut in the end, he was reelected on the first and only ballot and will again lead his party in the House.
Republicans control the House, with a 234-199 advantage in seats (there are now two vacancies). Democrats, with the help of two independents, have a 55-45 edge in the Senate.
It seems that Boehner must have given one of his tearful speeches to persuade Republicans to vote him back in. According to The Hill,
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is signaling that at least one thing will change about his leadership during the 113th Congress: he’s telling Republicans he is done with private, one-on-one negotiations with President Obama.
During both 2011 and 2012, the Speaker spent weeks shuttling between the Capitol and the White House for meetings with the president in hope of striking a grand bargain on the deficit.
Those efforts ended in failure, leaving Boehner feeling burned by Obama and, at times, isolated within his conference.
In closed-door meetings since leaving the “fiscal cliff” talks two weeks ago, lawmakers and aides say the Speaker has indicated he is abandoning that approach for good and will return fully to the normal legislative process in 2013 — seeking to pass bills through the House that can then be adopted, amended or reconciled by the Senate.
Boehner utterly fumbled the “fiscal cliff” deal as demonstrated here, here and here. Now he expects us to believe him when he says that he is “done with one-on-one privately negotiating with Obama?” I think John Boehner has demonstrated just what we can expect in the next two to four years and that is more succumbing to Obama and the Democrat’s agenda.
