Boehner re-elected as speaker

Bardox

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A vote was held today, as it is every 2 years, on who should take up the role of speaker of the house of representatives in the US Congress. The chioces were Nancy Pelosi(D) or John Boehner(R). The Final Vote was 220 Boehner to 191 Pelosi and 15 listed as "other"

My question is who you think should be speaker and why. You can use party line reasons if you like though I would prefer a real reason, but if party line is all you got then go for it.

I personally would have voted for Pelosi. As she demonstrated during her previous speakership, she has the respect of her party, can deliver on deals she makes, and people listen when she speaks. Boehner on the other hand, judging from the last two year, has none of those things. He doesn't seem to be able to command. From what I've seen he is just a figure head that has no real power over the people he is said to be leader of. Eric Cantor, his own majority leader, has stabbed him in the back more than once. Over the Fiscal Cliff the republican members of the house just walked out on him.

The Speaker of the House is meant to be the leader of the entire house. anot just one party. That's what the party leaders are for. It is the job of the speaker to work with both sides to find middle ground and get bills passed. Under Speaker Boehner, the 112th congress passed the lowest number of bills and displayed the greatest partisan divide in US history. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe no one can work with these people, but it's clear to me that John Boehner can't.

Let us hope the 113th congress can do better than the 112th.
 

Klingsor

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I'm amazed to hear myself say this, but I might have to opt for Boehner.

It's true that he's ineffective, but Pelosi would be a complete lame duck in a Republican-majority House. At least in Boehner, Obama has someone to deal with who someday, just possibly, may help broker some crucial deal.
 

Penis Aficionado

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All of my first choices would be Democrats, but that's obviously not going to happen.

One Republican I mostly disagree with but like is Peter King of NY, even before his recent public evisceration of Boehner. Also, if you read between the lines of what he said, I think he implied that the WASP, white-collar Republican mainstream holds a lot of prejudice against the Northeastern, more ethnic, more blue-collar Republicans. As if it's still the '50s and those politicians are all owned by the Mafia.
 

ColoradoGuy

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Because the House majority will always determine the House speakership, it's improbable (how's that for tact?) we could ever have a Speaker from the minority. While you're correct that it's the Speaker of the House and not the head of the party, we don't live in a society that would allow its elected representatives to allow the opposition party to have control of the legislative agenda. Americans simply don't trust Congress to do the 'right' thing.

Speaker Boehner is still probably a better choice than Eric Cantor (R-Va) or Paul Ryan (R-Wi), who were both mentioned as potential replacements. Neither of those two have the experience to do the job. Personally, I would have voted for Pelosi, but if I had to pick a Republican, I would look for someone who has served at least five terms in Congress and:

- Publicly rebuked Joe Wilson's outrageous outburst in September 2009 during President Obama's speech to Congress.
- Challenged the Iraqi WMD claims made by the Bush administration in 2002.
- Co-sponsored meaningful legislation with Democratic colleagues on ANY agenda item.
- Publicly supported the Obama administration's efforts to make health care a right and not a privilege in America by supporting the Affordable Care Act.
- Encouraged Republican leadership to work with the White House on the 'grand compromise' in July 2012.
- Publicly announced support for compromising with Democrats to avoid the fiscal cliff in November and December of 2012.

So, that means I would have voted for [ this space intentionally blank ].

And that's the problem. I can't think of a single Republican who -- while maybe adhering to their personal convictions -- thought for themselves and did those simple things over the past ten years. No politician is perfect and no political party is 100% right, but if we're looking for leadership and independence as opposed to party rhetoric and obstructionism, there just aren't any good candidates.
 

malcolm61

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honeymustard said "Fuck that crybaby". I guess, to start, who is the crybaby? second, is someone named boner a valid represtenatative? Does that not sound like a useless dick? Or worse? I think of myself as a triple L. A left leaning liberal.
 

HUNGHUGE11X7

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He is the lesser of A House of Evils, if you will . I think he may break ranks with his party and instead of using that absurd Majority of the Majority rule, he will go for a house majority more especially on important issues.
He knows in his heart this is the last time he will be Speaker and he also knows he has a large number of insane people in his party hellbent on doing nothing but destroying the Government. Given this I think he will work in a more Bi-Partisan fashion than his abysmal record in the 112th Congress.
The HISTORIC LOW of 5% APPROVAL rating of the 112th Congress which was completely warranted simply cannot be repeated and he knows this.
The 111th Congress was one of the most productive of all houses in the past century, the 112th was the LEAST productive in the history of the country.
I really don't think the speaker wants that to be his epitaph.


HH
 
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gymfresh

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Hmmm, I grew up in DC, went to law school and thought I knew my civics pretty well, but I honestly didn't know that the whole House votes for a Speaker. I thought that the majority party caucuses and picks someone. Maybe because, as Wikipedia says, "In modern practice, the speaker is chosen by the majority party from among its senior leaders."

I also didn't know that Representatives don't have to vote for a current, past or future member of Congress. They're perfectly free to vote for their Avon lady, their parole officer, their Aunt Sadie or Mayor Michael Bloomberg to be Speaker of the House. And no one can win on just a plurality of votes; it must be an absolute majority, no matter how many ballots/rounds it goes.
 

cruztbone

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Boehner continues to lead the GOP into the tanning both and Jack Daniels bottle of dispair. He is no longer capable of leading a tourbus on a bar hopping tour of Cincinnati, Ohio. God bless our Nancy Pelosi, queen of san francisco.
 

b.c.

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Depends on the laws, doesn't it?

"Democrats in particular have been critical of House Republicans' 30-some attempts to repeal all or parts of President Barack Obama's health care reform law. Their most recent attempt came this week, when Republicans passed a law codifying the one-year delay in the law's employer mandate, even in the face of a veto threat from the White House."


Talk about not being able to "move on"... dogs with a bone.