The true measure of the impact of a “Dump Boehner Now” letter campaign, which allows voters to urge every single Republican House member to find a replacement for the current House speaker, rests not with the two dozen who voted against him.
It’s with the dozens of members of Congress who are being forced into explanations, excuses and apologies by their constituents for voting for Boehner.
Outraged voters have forced lawmakers to issue tortured statements explaining their vote and have spurred primary opponents to challenge the incumbents.
The “Dump Boehner Now” letter campaign was launched because of the powerful statement voters sent in the 2014 midterms that they opposed Obamacare and amnesty.
Yet during the lame-duck session, when Republicans were looking forward to taking control of the U.S. Senate and expanding their majority in the House, Boehner agreed with Obama on a spending program that continues funding into 2015 for both Obamacare and amnesty. Boehner later was re-elected to the House leadership post.
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.”
Things were so bad in the south that Rep. Steve Pallazzo, R-Miss., felt compelled to send a mass email explaining how he met with Boehner “one-on-one and man-to-man for more than an hour” and “asked him directly whether he was going to be a conservative leader who will stand up to the liberal agenda of President Obama.”
To which constituent Tracy Johnson Sr. wrote, “Man to man really, so you looked a demon in the face asked him a question and think he did not lie to you? Are you stupid or what?”
Answering his own question, Johnson added, “I pretty much think you are a chicken crap politician who is no better than the liberals out there.”
John Stelmack asked, “What kind of man would put his hand on the Bible, swear to uphold the Constitution, then turn around and vote for the man who demonstrated four years of blocking any defense against Obama?”
Moving from explaining to groveling, Palazzo says he “considered” opposing Boehner, but now he solemnly swears, “If Speaker Boehner refuses to put forward conservative solutions immediately to our nation’s problems, I will vehemently oppose his every move.”
Mike Longo summed up the sentiment of many Mississippians: “You’re a fool if you think the people that are voting for you are falling for this and I’m talking to you Steven Palazzo!”
Linda Louise Demaree got right to the point: “You lost my vote and a lot of other people’s I know.”
Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., found his eyebrows and other parts singed after voting for Boehner. He told outraged constituents: “I declined to participate in a coup plot against Boehner that failed today by 11 votes. The plot was ill-conceived, ill-executed and designed to fail.”
To which Heather Anne Searfoss responded: “Coup? Plot? Are freaking serious here? Your Republican colleagues ARE the problem! A white knight? Stop talking to me like I’m a child! I’m disgusted.”
Don Peterson isn’t buying it either: “For you to describe voting against an elected representative as a ‘coup plot’ is utterly repugnant. A coup is when a leader is removed from office by being rendered room temperature. What you should have done is to help remove a feckless, backstabbing, corrupt Boehner from the speakership via the constitutional process provided you. I will certainly remember this in two years.”
When DeSantis named Paul Ryan as a conservative he could support, Rodney Coffey replied incredulously, “Paul Ryan a conservative?”
DeSantis tried to absolve himself by saying, “from the CRomnibus to various bailouts and spending bills, I have consistently opposed Boehner’s policies on the floor of the House.”
But that didn’t help. Josh Weitzell called DeSantis “a spineless speedbump” for complaining about Boehner then voting for him, while Greg Jahke compared his congressman to someone “standing by and watching another be brutally raped – we stood and did nothing because nobody else did.”
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, is another of many who caught heat. Enough heat that he told his constituents: “I can’t blame many of my supporters for being upset with my vote for Speaker Boehner. I ask, however, that they consider not just a single vote but my long record as a champion of conservative values who stands up to the establishment.”
Jeff Alltus told Labrador: “You showed us you have a noodle for a backbone. I have given you money, had your signs on my properties. NO MORE!!!”
Deaunna Stafford was similarly unsparing in her critique: “You must be that GruberStupid to BELIEVE JohnFraudBoehner.”
David Heneise sounds like he fell out of love: “I’m not going to call you names because that doesn’t do any good. I voted for you congressman precisely because you presented yourself as a conservative and you’ve voted accordingly…. in the past. However, …what you did is the reason why people like myself are fed up with the typical Washington inside the beltway mentality.. say one thing and do another.”
Rep. Doug Collins in Georgia found himself with a possible primary opponent – as well as a “Primary Doug Collins” website and Facebook page – as a result of his vote.
Al Gainey, a former county commissioner and conservative radio host is considering a run, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “I just cannot believe that we have had to put up with more of the same from everybody that goes to Washington from Georgia, from the senators in the past to the current congressmen.”
Gainey would likely get Priscilla Barner Burnser’s vote. She told Collins: “I was truly disappointed with you for voting to re-elect Boehner. He is not a conservative. He is an Obama butt kisser. I cannot vote for you.”
And Debbie Jackson’s vote, too: “I’m sorry I wasted my vote on you. Your vote to keep Boehner as speaker was the final straw.”
The letter campaign to Congress already has generated more than 575,000 letters.
Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation explained why it’s important.
In the Washington Times, he said: “A month after its incredible victory, the GOP squandered its mandate, surrendering to the Democrats. 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.”
Members of Congress also have reported a flood of telephone calls from constituents critical of their vote to keep Boehner as speaker.
