Incoming Speaker Boehner’s House Threatened By Termites.

by Michael Matheron · January 6, 2011

“The people voted to end business as usual,
and today we begin to carry out their
instructions. As for tomorrow, or later
today, we do not discuss hypotheticals.”

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John Boehner Is In The House! Ohio Republican John Boehner, sworn in yesterday as the Speaker of the House for the 112th Congress, has come a long way from his simple beginnings in Cincinnati as the second of 11 siblings. Raised in near poverty in a two bedroom house, and forced to share a single tanning bed with his sibs, John Boehner – now Speaker Boehner – is third in the line of presidential succession. Boehner’s well-known work ethic has paid off, but more work lies ahead as he seeks to repair the damage wrought by those Socialist Democrats. He and his fellow Republicans look upon their rivals like the Omega Theta Pi’s viewed the Deltas in Animal House.

As Speaker, he must manage a House, reclaimed through November’s GOP triumph, that needs some fix-up. Democrats, as usual, left a few dozen beer bottles in the sofas, cigarette burns in the carpet, condoms in the trophy case, and a few togas on the floor – but nothing truly threatening to the clubhouse’s foundation.

Outgoing Democratic Leadership,
January 5, 2011

Never Underestimate The Power Of Termites. It’s the possible damage lurking in the months ahead, however, that is perhaps Speaker Boehner’s most challenging problem. The moribund-on-a-good-day Democrats are little more than an almost supernaturally timid gaggle of pols one may insult with careless abandon without fear of retort.

Just arriving this week and still searching for apartments and low priced diners, are the real dangerous folks challenging Speaker Boehner’s House, and his splintering GOP. This fifth column marching into the House represents a growing number of GOP malcontents. Among them are the rightest of the right wing. Some are incorruptible Constitutionalists. Almost all of them want to strip the federal government to its underpants. Boy, do they hate taxes, with or without representation. Yes indeed, they are the Tea Partiers. Numbering nearly 100 House members (approximately 43 of them in the freshman class), these folks wanna rock the House! Bigtime. And, imagine, they are too far right for John Boehner!

Me hungry!!

Aggressive Tea Partiers, like termites in attack mode, promise to munch on the joists unless treated with respect bordering on worship, which for most of them is well beyond their “newbie” status. Given their propensity for stubbornness, though, if the Speaker is not careful, they may bring the roof down, with Republicans and Democrats, on the front lawn, mouths agape as their cozy living arrangement collapses.

Party Hearty! As we’ve all observed for almost two years, Tea Partiers view themselves as true believers, in their understanding of the Constitution, the role (if any) of the federal government, their belief in the sovereignty of the states. They carry a hefty amount of self-purity into a House not known for squared corners or dust-free tabletops.

As self-proclaimed purists they may now view legislative rules only insofar as they advance their own rather rigid beliefs, and squirm when confronted with the House legislative pecking order and seniority system. As second term Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz stated it when he refused to join the Michele Bachmann-inspired Tea Party Caucus,

“Structure and formality are the exact opposite of what the tea party is, and if there is an attempt to put structure and formality around it, or to co-opt it by Washington, D.C., it’s going to take away from free-flowing nature of the true tea party movement.”

The array of formal and informal House rules are longstanding principles of engagement to protect precedents that, theoretically at least, benefit all club members and often cool off hotter heads. After a brief honeymoon period, these House rules very likely will rankle Tea Partiers who want to quickly get on with it. These rules stand like iron doors to protect an inner sanctum where Republicans and Democrats with ample seniority canoodle and, too often, conspire with the likes of lobbyists and high income bracketeers. Can termites chew through iron?

smile

“Thanks, Mister Adams, but I prefer a cappuccino laced with mung beans and beer.”

Fr. Journal of Michael Matthew Bloomer, December 16, 1773

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” Mark Twain. Tea Partiers, among many other of the 87 new GOP House members, are confident and in a hurry. New Tea Party Congressman Allen West of Florida, whose wealth-ridden district 22 stretches from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale, expressed some of this the other day on NPR when asked about health care reform. Newly minted Congressman West spoke of free enterprise solutions and had this to say about about the Obama-inspired health care law:

“But I can tell you, you know, with my limited education, I can probably package that in five to 10 pages. The other 2,490 pages, that’s what we need to focus on.”

Now that’s confidence! “With my limited education,” indeed.

Another Tea Party freshman, Rep. Frank Guinta, (R-NH), promised Diane Sawyer, “We will not spend more than we take in. Our families live by that rule.” Ignoring the collation of morals with macroeconomics, and his ready use of the fallacy of composition, Congressman Guinta displayed that earnestness, forthrightness, and moral certainty so common among Tea Partiers. Be cautious here: it’s true, these virtues were too often built upon a foundation of ignorance, misinformation, and “Limbaughnian” propaganda, but that doesn’t blunt their importance and power among the Tea Party constituency. We’re in “belief-based fact” territory here.

How this will all play out for Tea Partiers during the daily grind of lawmaking will be both interesting and disturbing to watch. Interesting because despite disagreeing with their proposals, one can’t help rooting for a group of people who really believe they can get things done in D.C. and remain unreservedly aloof from the Monopoly game called legislating. Fascinating too will be Speaker Boehner’s approach to a concerted group so far to his right that this stalwart and very arch conservative seems in comparison a Mahatma Gandhi. How will Speaker Boehner fare? Who will he turn to? How strongly will the Tea Party push him? Against all this on his right wing, will he be able to cobble together anything remotely resembling a unified GOP for the 2012 election cycle?

Tea Party performance in the 112th Congress may well have its disturbing scenes as well. Can they succeed in some of their wilder and, frankly, disgraceful plans like refusing to lift a fiscal finger to assist the unemployed, or cutting benefits and tax breaks for the poorest among us? Will they succeed in capturing enough media attention – thus far, it’s Tea Party all the time at Fox and other major networks – to, God spare us, successfully launch the likes of a Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, or Sarah Palin on a third party cruise in 2012?

Or, quite to the contrary, will the trappings that ensnared other “true believers” of the right wing like Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich ensnare and defeat naive or acquisitive Tea Partiers in their first exposure to the lobbying boodle machines on K Street? After all, free enterprise touting legislators have been ensnared before in the act of offering their power as a marketable commodity that may be freely contracted out.

Yes, the Tea Party invasion of Capitol Hill may prove both interesting and disturbing. Right now, my money’s on both, in equal parts. And I’m unanimous in my confidence in that!