Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., was one of a couple dozen GOP members who wouldn't support Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, in his successful bid for re-election to the speaker's position in the House earlier this month.
In fact, Webster offered himself as a candidate to replace Boehner.
But Boehner, whose candidacy was opposed by the Don't be Yellow, Dump Boehner Now! campaign, which enables citizens to let all 246 GOP members of the House majority know of their opposition to allowing him, won anyway.
End of story?
Not quite.
Webster says improvements must still be made in the House, and if no one else is going to step up to the plate, he just might.
In the Southern Political Report, he was quoted responding to the question of whether or not he will seek the speaker's post again.
"If someone else will do that, I'm happy to guide them. If no one else will do that, I'm willing to step up and do it."
And a report at TampaBay.com said he had no regrets about attempting to unseat Boehner, and he wouldn't rule out another challenge.
"You remember when I used to say, 'I'm a plodder, not a prophet'? Today I'm plodding – I'm not prophesying what I'm going to do in the future. My focus right now is to help in any way I can to unify our conference around an agenda. We've got to prove that we can lead, and I'm going to be all-in to help prove that," he said.
The letter campaign was started because only weeks after American voters gave the GOP an expanded lead in the U.S. House and control of the U.S. Senate, Boehner made a deal with President Obama that included funding for Obamacare and for the president's amnesty plan into 2015.
Those were the two issue about which voters complained – loudly – during the 2014 midterms. Their message: They didn't like or want either program.
The letters campaign already has generated more than 570,000 letters, a pile roughly 20 stories tall, which would be hard to slip into House offices unnoticed.
Sunshine State News reported the five Florida conservatives in Congress who voted against Boehner were not backing down.
They were Reps. Curt Clawson, Rich Nugent, Bill Posey, Webster and Ted Yoho.
"I don't believe that John Boehner is the best man for the job," said Nugent. "This may surprise some people (including the speaker) but it has far more to do with his leadership abilities than it does with his conservatism."
Yoho said the 24 House members who voted against Boehner "made history."
"Our efforts to change leadership for the better have been the most successful attempt to do so in over 100 years."
The rebels were just four votes shy, he said.
WND reported one day earlier that Boehner hasn't really imposed a lot of punishments on opponents, at least yet.
It may be because he fears conservatives.
A report in The Hill explained he appears to believe what's best is to let things settle down.
"He's aware some of his opponents were under enormous pressure to abandon him, as hundreds, if not thousands, of phone calls and emails poured into congressional offices from tea party activists seeking the speaker's head," the report said. "And he knows full well that the grassroots activists applying the pressure were further enraged when he took quick revenge by booting two defectors – Florida GOP Reps. Daniel Webster and Richard Nugent – from the powerful Rules Committee."
The report continued: "There's concern among party leaders that any further retribution could provoke conservatives, and cause more headaches for Boehner and his allies at the very moment they are trying to show they can govern in Washington."
A good portion of that pressure has come from the Don't be Yellow, Dump Boehner Now! campaign.
The Hill reported that there are punishments Boehner still could hand out, such as depriving his critics of campaign cash or cutting off their ability to travel abroad on congressional trips.
But Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, who challenged Boehner, was named head of the Natural Resources Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine, another opponent, will lead the House Science, Space and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on the Environment.
The Hill said "another defector," Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, heads the Subcommittee on Energy.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of letters, the Washington Examiner reported: "There were hundreds of them, jamming the phone lines of the district and Capitol offices of dozens of House GOP lawmakers. The callers were not angry about legislation. Nor were they asking for help with a local matter. They were demanding their representative vote against Boehner ... in his bid to win election to a third term as speaker."
And there's a move by a couple of dozen House members, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to create a new caucus that would urge bold, conservative actions on immigration, Obamacare and other issues.
Jordan told Gannett: "If you set small goals, you're not likely to accomplish big things. Our party had better understand what is at stake. We had better get it."
The report said the idea "is to leverage the Republican sweep in November's elections into conservative victories in Congress – and to serve as a check on the GOP leadership if they move too far toward the middle" to "compromise with the White House and congressional Democrats."
Joseph Farah, WND founder and campaign organizer, said the opposition to Boehner is based on the Obamacare and amnesty issues.
It has earned the support of the founder of Tea Party Nation, one of the organizations that helped rouse the American electorate in 2010 and give the GOP control of the U.S. House.
"Absolutely, I want people storming the halls of Congress," Judson Phillips told WND. "Melting the phone lines and anything else."
"So, I love [WND CEO Joseph Farah's] letter writing idea."
Phillips went to the commentary pages of the Washington Times to say why he thinks Boehner should be replaced.
"A month after its incredible victory, the GOP squandered its mandate, surrendering to the Democrats," he wrote. "The GOP-led House of Representatives did not proclaim its mandate and hold off on major decisions until the Republican majority in the Senate was sworn in. No, they went to the GOP position of preemptive surrender and gave President Obama and the Democrats almost everything they wanted.
"Despite the pleas and demands from the base, the GOP did nothing to stop Mr. Obama’s executive amnesty. They even rewarded left-wing billionaires who had spent millions to keep the Democrats in power by extending so-called 'Green Energy' subsidies," he wrote. "The architect of the Republican surrender was House Speaker John Boehner."
JOIN THE DON'T BE YELLOW, DUMP BOEHNER NOW CAMPAIGN.
The letter explains to members of the U.S. House that two issues have "prompted Americans to turn in droves to the Republican Party in November 2014 – Barack Obama's blatantly unconstitutional executive action to provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, and the deliberately deceptive restructuring of America's health-care system through Obamacare, which threatens to unravel the greatest health delivery system in the world."
Pointing out that Republicans before the election "solemnly vowed to STOP this lame-duck president," the letter states: "Now you have the power, right and duty to stop him.
"But it won't happen with John Boehner leading you. You know this to be true. The trillion-dollar budget deal is just the latest proof that Boehner is not capable of leading the House to victory during this critical period."
The campaign allows people to send letters, with their own names and addresses via FedEx, all for the one price of $29.95, to each of the House GOP members.