Fresh from our "Between a rock and a hard place" file, CNN is reporting that Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips wrote on the organization's website, "The Tea Party movement should find a candidate to run against House Speaker John Boehner in 2012 and should set as a goal, to defeat in a primary, the sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives." Why? Because Boehner has not delivered on the $100 million that he and other GOP candidates promised to cut from the budget if elected.
Boehner has been walking a tight rope — trying to satisfy Tea Party members in Congress and work with other moderate Republicans and Democrats to agree on a budget. Since Boehner appears to be willing to accept far smaller spending cuts for the rest of the current fiscal year than what Republicans pledged in the 2010 election campaign, the Tea Party is up in arms and turning on Boehner.
Of course, all of this drama is unfolding against the backdrop of a looming government shutdown, which many in the Tea Party support. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that Boehner is torn between doing what the Tea Party wants and what Americans need, which is a resolution to this problem. Tea Party members, like Republican Mike Pence of Indiana, want the government to make the cuts or shutdown, yelling "Cut it or shut it," at a Tea Party rally.
Well, we can't say that we feel sorry for Boehner. The Tea Party is clearly driving the agenda of the Republican Party, and the movement's perceived power has gotten beyond the control of the majority of the GOP, which is scary. It is amazing that the Tea Party was silent when former President Bush was driving up the deficit but is literally screaming mad about deficit spending under the Obama administration, all the while supporting the tax cut for the wealthy that added hundreds of billions of dollars to it.
Oh well, that "logic" is something that Boehner will have to deal witht, now that the monster the GOP helped create is threatening to turn against tried-and-true Republicans like Boehner. It was all kicks and giggles when trying to get elected with the Tea Party, and now the threats they once lobbed at Democrats have been directed at members of their own party. Thats not very nice — heck, that's not very Republican. What is the world coming to when Boehner is not conservative enough?
Read more at CNN.
In other news: Glenn Beck's Fox Show Is a Wrap.
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