Why did two of the GOP’s most hysterical right wingers just contradict themselves?
If you haven’t been following the story for the past few weeks, John Boehner announced a lawsuit against the President claiming he abused his power of Congress and the Constitution via executive orders. On late Wednesday, the House formally started the arduous process by voting to sue Obama.
The Republican-led House approved a resolution on Wednesday authorizing Speaker John Boehner to sue President Barack Obama over claims he abused his powers at the expense of Congress and the Constitution.
The vote was 225-201.
Republicans argue Obama’s executive orders in a number of areas were unlawful because it’s the job of Congress to make or change laws. But they believe his handling of the Affordable Care act gives them the best chance at proving their case, and are basing the suit on that issue.
House authorization now allows GOP-leaders to have the unusual challenge filed in federal court. The time frame for that is not clear and many legal experts question whether any judge would take it on.
This has been a long time coming, so to see it finally voted on so the process can start isn’t surprising.
What is surprising is the Republican members of Congress who voted against it.
Not a single House Democrat voted for the resolution and five Republicans opposed it. They were: GOP members Paul Broun of Maryland, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Steve Stockman of Texas, and Walter Jones of North Carolina.
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Jones and Massie are, by Republican standards, libertarian-leaning moderates, so it’s not surprising that they would buck the party on this. Scott Garrett is hands down the most conservative Congressman from a Northeastern state, but he has to run for re-election this year in his New Jersey district, so it’s not very surprising that he wouldn’t want his name attached to his process while his opponent runs attack ad after attack ad alleging that he’s wasting taxpayer money.
The odd names on this list are Broun, who is actually from Georgia, and Stockman. Both men are Tea Party-approved congressmen who gave up their seats in the House in order to run for the US Senate – Broun against a crowded open field which included two other Congressmen, but eventually saw businessman David Perdue win, and Stockman with an ill-fated, lazy primary against the popular, powerful John Cornyn. Because neither Texas nor Georgia have “Favorite Son” laws, Stockman and Broun weren’t allowed to run in two primaries at the same time, meaning that they aren’t running for re-election and will leave office at the end of the year.
Stockman and Broun may be slightly less visible than the Ted Cruzes and Joe Wilsons of the world when it comes to Tea Party hackery, but both have had made waves in the media for being on the far right of the Republican Party. Stockman once compared Obama to Saddam Hussein and said he would file articles of impeachment against him if he used an executive order on gun control, in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. Broun is most famous for his comments that embryology and evolution are “lies straight from the pit of hell”, but more recently, he claimed that guns were given to us by God to have everywhere.
The point is that this is a complete about face for Stockman and Broun to vote against the lawsuit. Why?
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Purely speculating, this would be one way to stick it to the establishment Republicans who worked against them in their primary campaigns. Republican decisionmakers whole-heartedly backed Cornyn and assumingly gave Broun no backing over either Jack Kingston or Phil Gingrey, the other two Republican Congressmen running for the seat. Because the bill was always going to pass, this might be a jab to the gut for spurning the candidates.
Another reason would be that now that they don’t have to worry about re-election, they have either completely checked out or are trying to push non-politicized issues to the forefront – Broun this week cosponsored a bill that would legalize medical marijuana on the federal level, a stark departure from his previously stated position, indicating that yes, if you don’t have to worry about re-election, you will let people know how you feel:
“As I promised on the campaign trail, I would make the Constitution my primary guide on how I voted on all matters. [The vote on the Hinchey Amendment] was a constitutional issue pertaining to ‘restraining’ the federal government from interfering with the right of states to establish public policy on matters not specifically addressed by the Constitution.”
Stockman, on the other hand, is still advocating for impeachment on the IRS issue. So, either Stockman temporarily grew a conscience for five minutes, or maybe he didn’t understand what he was voting on. Either way, the fact that Paul Broun and Steve Stockman didn’t join 225 of their fellow Republicans in voting to sue the President is pretty shocking to say the least. I can only hope that Broun has a sudden epiphany about global warming before an even bigger nutcracker succeeds him.
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Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to ….
Speaking of Benghazi …. Even CNN getting fed up with Jay Carney’s attempts at deflection. “Actor James Woods noted Saturday that it’s a special occasion “when Obama lackeys like CNN start doing true investigative journalism.” The network finally dipped a toe in the water of Benghazi last Thursday with its report on dozens of CIA operatives who are being pressured to stay silent, and tomorrow night CNN will air “The Truth about Benghazi: An Out front Special Investigation” — only 10 months after Fox News’ special, “Death and Deceit in Benghazi.” “CNN’s Erin Burnett seems to be enjoying her new… Read more »
Jay Carney is gone and so are the articles from main stream about Benghazi.
Speaking of deflection, you’ve taken this conversation radically off topic. I don’t know why. You’re throwing around James Woods quotes like his political views should be taken seriously.
ANd BTW, the majority of the GOP are not interested in impeaching Obama.
That’s laughable. Because they’re not going around trumpeting impeachment in an election year doesn’t mean they’re not “interested” in it? Let’s forget the far right of the party, like Stockman, who I never said spoke for the GOP. Darrell Issa is still using all of the resources he can get his hands on as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to find a smoking gun. John McCain and Lindsey Graham are still trying to keep Benghazi in the news and even as they blocked Susan Rice’s elevation to Secretary of State, are still looking to get Obama… Read more »
Unfortunately, the only emails that have been retrieved because of the conveniently crashed computers, I’ll be glad to wait until they are able to pull information from the hard drives. At this point, they only have a gun …. I expect they will soon find the “smoking” gun.
And do tell me, if similar was found where inflammatory emails were found in reverse, ya think the media wouldn’t be in it like white on rice? If you don’t think so, then you’re fooling yourself.
The media would be like white on rice on whatever is going to increase viewership and advertising revenue. If you don’t think so, then you’re fooling yourself. The Christie bridge scandal wasn’t newsworthy forever because it was a Republican governor, it was because it involved commuters to and from the largest city in the country. If a Republican governor in, say, Wyoming, had a bridge scandal involving a bridge in Laramie, do you think it would have gotten a lot of press? No, it wouldn’t. Case in point – how much are you hearing on CNN, ABC, and CBS about… Read more »
Where were ya’ll “The Kucinich/Wexler impeachment resolution” In fact, back in 2008, there was a bill sponsored by Dennis Kucinich with this title: “Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors.” The bill was co-sponsored by eleven Democrats, among them Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson-Lee.
The Good Men Project wasn’t a website in 2008, so we were nowhere.
So not all Republicans are for impeachment, but eleven Democrats were for impeachment for Bush, so all Democrats were for impeachment? There’s also that little caveat that there was damning evidence against Bush administration officials that they had misled us into the war in Iraq.
If you don’t believe that there is a media slant in favor of the Dems, you truly are kidding yourself.
I subscribe to Hot Air and Town Hall, It’s amazing what main stream media doesn’t report on. But maybe things are changing a little in that even main stream media is getting tired of this administration.
Best kept under the the radar … Benghazi.
You mean something that describes itself as “the leader conservative blog” and something that describes itself as “Conservative news”? Keep thinking that that’s real, objective reporting.
Curious, will GMP do any article on Lois Lerner? Now that the emails are starting to come out …. maybe it’s time for GMP to be non-partisan? Of course, I won’t hold my breath.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-lois-lerner-called-republicans-crazies-in-email/ Are you talking about these emails? This is the most circumstantial evidence I’ve ever seen in my life. Not even Dick Wolf would take this case. If there’s an email where Lerner said, “The GOP are assholes, and crazy, and I’m going to do whatever I can to take them down”, or even something lighter but in the same spirit, then the GOP would have a strong case, and if that happens, I’ll write about it. Your problem should be with the Supreme Court for handing the keys to the wheel to the IRS in the first place on… Read more »