Beyond amnesty and retaliation, incompetence and liberalism has ruled the House of Representatives this year. A common-sense ban on abortions after five months of pregnancy, previously having sailed through last Congress, was pulled the same week as thousands of abortion opponents traveled to DC to March for Life. A long-term reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was scheduled and whipped extensively by Boehner’s leadership team before being pulled at the last minute because of a conservative revolt. In order to preserve the NCLB testing mandates he personally authored with President Bush and Senator Ted Kennedy, Boehner made House Republicans choose between him and one the chief domestic failures of the Bush years. And this week, the House engaged in a bipartisan love fest surrounding the reauthorizing of Amtrak. Boehner passed an Amtrak “reform” bill that was supported by every Democrat and opposed by over one hundred Republicans.
Thankfully, House conservatives get a do-over. House Rules provide a privileged (meaning it takes precedence over other business) resolution to vacate the office of the Speaker. It can be offered by any Member. It would be a simple majority vote. If the entire House was voting, 28 Members would be needed to depose Boehner with all of the Democrats. Once vacated, a new Speaker election would ensue.
Again, as I argued in January, House conservatives do not need a formal candidate to take his place. Many will argue that they do, but they are wrong. It would be nice, but it is not crucial. The dynamic would be similar to that in 1998, when after Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston stepped down, House Republicans themselves recognized the need for a new person to unite around. Nobody was running. They gravitated to Denny Hastert and tapped him to be Speaker. The process of “vacating the chair” is to show that Boehner cannot continue, signaling that it is time to find a replacement. A viable replacement will likely not step forward until then.
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