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Showing posts with label Matt Salmon. Show all posts

Friday, March 6, 2015

If You Ever Wondered If Boehner Was On The Conservative Side Of Politics, We Now KNOW He Isn't!

Democrats Vow to Protect Boehner as Speaker

(Devin Dietsch/UPI/Landov)

Friday, 06 Mar 2015 11:16 AM

By Drew MacKenzie

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House Democrats have vowed to back Speaker John Boehner if tea party Republicans attempt to oust him from his leadership position.

The speaker angered right-wing Republicans this week by capitulating to Democratic demands to fund the Department of Homeland Security without reversing President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration.

With Boehner voting for the measure even though two-thirds of GOP members voted against it, conservative Republicans are said to be openly considering a coup in a bid to get the gavel into the hands of one of their colleagues.
But, according to The Hill, Democrats will block any such move.

"I'd probably vote for Boehner [because] who the hell is going to replace him? [Ted] Yoho?" said New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell, referring to the Florida tea party Republican who has crossed swords with Boehner on several bipartisan compromise bills.

"In terms of the institution, I would rather have John Boehner as the speaker than some of these characters who came here thinking that they're going to change the world."

Democratic Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva told The Hill that he believes that it would be bad news for Democrats if Boehner were replaced.

"Then we would get Scalise or somebody? Geez, come on," said Grijalva, referring to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La. "We can be suicidal, but not stupid."

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern said, "Personally, I don't want to waste two years. And I think that the crazy tea party-type would probably not be willing to work with us on anything.

"My hope is that what comes out of this is that Boehner realizes that there are some people in his caucus who are unreasonable, and you can never get them to say 'yes' to anything," he said. "Rather than spending so much time agonizing over how to please them, maybe he just ought to focus on how you build more bipartisan coalitions and actually get some things done."

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Obama Makes Another Speech. Will The Results Be As Disappointing As Previous Efforts?

Republicans to Obama: Great Speech but Let's See the Strategy

Wednesday, 10 Sep 2014 11:52 PM

By Todd Beamon

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Republicans supported President Barack Obama's pledge on Wednesday to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State (ISIS), but slammed his speech to the American people for lacking specifics on how to eliminate the terrorist group that beheaded two U.S. journalists.

"A speech is not the same thing as a strategy," said House Speaker John Boehner. "While the president presented a compelling case for action, many questions remain about the way in which the president intends to act."

The Ohio Republican added that he was concerned that Obama "appears to view the effort against [ISIS] as an isolated counterterrorism campaign, rather than as what it must be: an all-out effort to destroy an enemy that has declared a holy war against America and the principles for which we stand."

"Obama is a great speech-giver," Rep. Matt Salmon told Newsmax. "It's the follow-through I have problems with.

"There's a lot of cynicism out there," the Arizona Republican said. "We all believe that it is a top priority to completely eradicate any threat from ISIS and do whatever it takes, but a lot of us are very, very sick and tired of the speeches that don't really translate into any real meaningful action."

New York GOP Rep. Peter King praised Obama for developing "a strategy to defeat ISIS, but I'm disappointed that he continues to say what he's not going to do.

"It's the right goal, but he gets too defensive by saying that he's not going to use combat troops," King told Newsmax. "I also felt that his heart wasn't really in it."

In a prime-time speech from the Pentagon, Obama declared that the United States would "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State in an effort that would rely heavily on expanded airstrikes in Iraq — and into Syria for the first time — but that would not require U.S. combat troops on the ground in either Iraq or Syria.

"Our objective is clear: We will degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy," Obama said in a speech lasting just under 15 minutes.

While adamantly ruling out any possibility of sending American troops into combat, Obama said he would send nearly 500 more soldiers to Baghdad to aid the country's besieged security forces.

Obama also called on Congress to authorize a program to train and arm rebels in Syria who are fighting both the Islamic State and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Saudi Arabia, a crucial U.S. ally in the Middle East, offered to host the training missions, part of Obama's effort to persuade other nations to join with the United States in confronting the militants.

"This is not our fight alone," Obama said. "American power can make a decisive difference, but we cannot do for Iraqis what they must do for themselves, nor can we take the place of Arab partners in securing their region."

The United States began airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq in August, though many Republicans and other critics called for bombing Syria, from where the group launched its terrorist effort to establish a caliphate in the Middle East.

The Islamic State recently beheaded two American journalists, James Foley, 40, of Rochester, N.H., and Steven Sotloff, 31, of Miami. Their executions were posted on the Internet.

Obama's speech came one day before the nation marks the anniversaries of the 9/11 attacks that sent the United States into war against Iraq and Afghanistan 13 years ago, and of the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens and two former Navy SEALs, at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

The address also came amid testimony from U.S. intelligence officials on Capitol Hill that Islamic State militants have discussed infiltrating the country through the Mexico border, where thousands of illegal immigrants have been apprehended since late last year in anticipation of comprehensive reform.

But Republicans charged that Obama's speech was simply too vague and too late.

"The president has been operating from a leadership deficit on how to deal with this threat," said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. "That's left a lot of uncertainty among the American people, as they see the ruthless acts of terror carried out by these extremists.

"The time for delay and indecision has passed," Grassley said.

"It was like trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again," Florida Rep. John Mica said.

"This should've been done months ago as they gained strength," he told Newsmax, referring to ISIS. "I consider this one of the greatest intelligence failures since 9/11.

"Now, it's sort of a catch-up game, and the president has finally realized the threat that ISIS poses," Mica said.

Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino said "the president's very bad polls changed his rhetoric, though I'm not sure that the very bad polls changed his mind, based on what he said. It remains to be seen if he follows through.

"The speech was nothing beyond what I expected," Marino said.

Texas Rep. Lamar Smith said Obama's speech made it clear "the president has greatly underestimated ISIS, just as he underestimated that terrorist groups would be emboldened by the accelerated removal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

"We have heard strong words before, but words alone are not enough," Smith said.

Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn said that Obama "didn't speak to our allies, and he didn't define the coalition."

She told CNN that she wanted the president to seek authorization for the airstrikes from Congress and be very aggressive about them — "not go at it halfway."

In his Newsmax interview, King said that he did not expect Obama to fully detail his plans for the Islamic State because "whatever he says, the enemy is going to hear" — but he is most concerned about his plans for increased airstrikes.

"I wish he had emphasized it more. And as the policy is carried out, I hope that these are not isolated attacks," he said. "Instead, they are massive, sustained, deadly, brutal air attacks against ISIS in Iraq and in Syria, without the president having to apologize for it or explain it or do it again.

"We're at war with ISIS," King said. "We have to destroy them — and that's that."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Friday, April 11, 2014

If Republicans Lose Or Barely Maintain The House, You Can Expect Boehner To Lose His Leadership Role

House Conservatives Want to Oust Boehner

Friday, 11 Apr 2014 06:30 AM

By Cathy Burke

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Conservative lawmakers are plotting to dump House Speaker John Boehner as soon as November, the National Journal reported Thursday.

The National Journal said 40 to 50 House conservatives are behind a scheme to infiltrate the GOP leadership in 2015, and pushing the Ohio Republican aside would be the first step.

The conservative disapproval with Boehner has been widely reported.

The rebels' strategies include backing a single conservative leadership candidate, cutting a deal with Majority Leader Eric Cantor that would swap support with him for speaker in return for his bringing aboard "a conservative lieutenant," or showing Boehner at the post-November elections' meeting of the incoming GOP conference that he doesn't have the votes for re-election in January, the National Journal reported.

One Republican told the publication the "nucleus" of the rebellion is inside the House Liberty Caucus, which includes Justin Amash of Michigan, Raul Labrador of Idaho, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who all objected to Boehner's re-election as speaker in January 2013.

Amash, chairman of the Liberty Caucus, has warned then there would be a "larger rebellion" if Boehner's leadership team didn't bring conservatives on board.

"There are no big ideas coming out of the conference. Our leadership expects to coast through this election by banking on everyone's hatred for Obamacare," said one Republican lawmaker organizing the rebellion the National Journal didn't identify. "There's nothing big being done. We're reshuffling chairs on the Titanic."

Boehner isn't the only target of the conservatives' ire, the National Journal reported.

Cantor has come under fire from conservatives recently because of a voice vote maneuver that helped pass an Obamacare "doctor fix" bill.

"I'm getting used to being deceived by the Obama administration, but when my own leadership does it, it's just not acceptable," Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona said last week, after Cantor met with a group of angry Republican Study Committee members.

"It's an issue of trust. If you want to have a majority that is governing, and a majority that is following the leader, the rest of us need to be in a position where we trust our leadership," Labrador has said, the National Journal reported.

"When you have politicians actually playing tricks on their own party, and their own members of Congress, I think that erodes the trust the American people have in the rest of us."

For his part, Boehner isn't going anywhere.

"Speaker Boehner is focused on the American people's top priority: helping our economy create more private sector jobs," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told the National Journal. "He has also said—publicly and privately—that he plans to be speaker again in the next Congress."

The attempted overthrow of Boehner last year failed in part because conservatives didn't have an alternative candidate for Republicans to rally around, the National Journal noted.

"Somebody has to step forward," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, one of 12 Republicans who refused to back Boehner's re-election in 2013. "This is not something where after the election you can step forward. There's going to be months and months of [planning] needed."

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Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Boehner-Cantor-National-Journal-House/2014/04/11/id/564981#ixzz2ybmOCoAa
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