http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article...si-unite-pass-bill-funding-planned-parenthood
This is what passes for leadership with establishment republicans. Boehner supinely accepted all obama's priorities in a continuing budget resolution vote. The bill, sure to get Senate approval, funds the government through the midterms, thus allowing lame duck members to come back and vote money for all sorts of things they didn't want to do before the elections.
The syrian funding was surprisingly controversial among normally hawkish republicans, who finally seemed to have learned the folly of Obama's destabilizing middle east policies. For example:
"Pelosi and Boehner joined together to vote for the amendment to arm and train Syrian revolutionaries, as did House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif) and House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R.-La.).
Among the 71 House Republicans standing in opposition to Pelosi and Boehner and the other Republican leaders on this amendment were Rep. Trey Gowdy (R.-S.C.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio), Rep. John Fleming (R.-La.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R.-Tex.), Rep. John Duncan (R.-Tenn.), Rep. Thomas Massie (R.-Ky.), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R.-Wisc.)
“President Obama is choosing the wrong locals to support,” said Rep. Rohrabacher on the House floor. “With this vote, Congress approves the arming and training of the Free Syrian Army, which is riddled with radical Muslims. In short, we may again be arming insurgents who will end up our enemy. We are told that the Free Syrian Army has been vetted and that we can trust them. This is wishful thinking, not realistic planning.”
“The truth is that, if you look back under this president as commander in chief, we trained people in Libya,” said Rep. Gohmert. “We provided weapons to Libya that were then used against us in Benghazi. There are Americans dead because this administration felt compelled to go in and take out Qadhafi."
“Because Libya fell, so did Algeria and Tunisia," said Gohmert, "and it jump-started, as I have said before, the new Ottoman Empire, the new caliphate that the Muslim brothers and so many of the radicals are saying they are going for."
“One of the big problems, too, when we go in and train, as this President wants to do for the Syrians, they learn our tradecraft,” said Gohmert. “They use it against us, as they did at Benghazi.”
“I am opposed to the president's vague and inadequate strategy for dealing with ISIS; and, therefore, I rise in opposition to this amendment,” said Rep. Fleming.
“If we are going to degrade and destroy them [ISIS] it will not happen through an indecisive strategy that relies on unreliable and largely unknown help from Syrian rebels, whose own motivations and goals are mixed, and almost impossible to be certain of,” said Rep. Fleming."
Obviously Boehner and the establishment republicans are deathly afraid of another government shutdown or any sort of dispute with Obama before the elections. They seem to have convinced themselves they will keep the House and take the Senate just by showing up for the midterms, which could be a tragic miscalculation. The horrors of obamacare may have faded by then and tepid improvement in the economy will be trumpeted by the media. Some sort of war on women or other get out the vote effort will be in full swing. Moderate republicans are the sort of spineless people who can always convince themselves of the wisdom of keeping a low profile, but in politics, something generally beats nothing, even if the something is crap.
This is what passes for leadership with establishment republicans. Boehner supinely accepted all obama's priorities in a continuing budget resolution vote. The bill, sure to get Senate approval, funds the government through the midterms, thus allowing lame duck members to come back and vote money for all sorts of things they didn't want to do before the elections.
The syrian funding was surprisingly controversial among normally hawkish republicans, who finally seemed to have learned the folly of Obama's destabilizing middle east policies. For example:
"Pelosi and Boehner joined together to vote for the amendment to arm and train Syrian revolutionaries, as did House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif) and House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R.-La.).
Among the 71 House Republicans standing in opposition to Pelosi and Boehner and the other Republican leaders on this amendment were Rep. Trey Gowdy (R.-S.C.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio), Rep. John Fleming (R.-La.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R.-Tex.), Rep. John Duncan (R.-Tenn.), Rep. Thomas Massie (R.-Ky.), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R.-Wisc.)
“President Obama is choosing the wrong locals to support,” said Rep. Rohrabacher on the House floor. “With this vote, Congress approves the arming and training of the Free Syrian Army, which is riddled with radical Muslims. In short, we may again be arming insurgents who will end up our enemy. We are told that the Free Syrian Army has been vetted and that we can trust them. This is wishful thinking, not realistic planning.”
“The truth is that, if you look back under this president as commander in chief, we trained people in Libya,” said Rep. Gohmert. “We provided weapons to Libya that were then used against us in Benghazi. There are Americans dead because this administration felt compelled to go in and take out Qadhafi."
“Because Libya fell, so did Algeria and Tunisia," said Gohmert, "and it jump-started, as I have said before, the new Ottoman Empire, the new caliphate that the Muslim brothers and so many of the radicals are saying they are going for."
“One of the big problems, too, when we go in and train, as this President wants to do for the Syrians, they learn our tradecraft,” said Gohmert. “They use it against us, as they did at Benghazi.”
“I am opposed to the president's vague and inadequate strategy for dealing with ISIS; and, therefore, I rise in opposition to this amendment,” said Rep. Fleming.
“If we are going to degrade and destroy them [ISIS] it will not happen through an indecisive strategy that relies on unreliable and largely unknown help from Syrian rebels, whose own motivations and goals are mixed, and almost impossible to be certain of,” said Rep. Fleming."
Obviously Boehner and the establishment republicans are deathly afraid of another government shutdown or any sort of dispute with Obama before the elections. They seem to have convinced themselves they will keep the House and take the Senate just by showing up for the midterms, which could be a tragic miscalculation. The horrors of obamacare may have faded by then and tepid improvement in the economy will be trumpeted by the media. Some sort of war on women or other get out the vote effort will be in full swing. Moderate republicans are the sort of spineless people who can always convince themselves of the wisdom of keeping a low profile, but in politics, something generally beats nothing, even if the something is crap.
