Some Conservatives Starting to Get Nervous?

It seems that a number of establishment voices in the GOP are starting to feel the need to put pressure on the rebellious members of the House GOP caucus:

A WSJ editorial (entitled “The GOP’s Reality Test”):

If conservatives defeat the Boehner plan, they’ll not only undermine their House majority. They’ll go far to re-electing Mr. Obama and making the entitlement state that much harder to reform.

The piece goes to great lengths to criticize Obama, but the message is clear:  the House GOP caucus needs to coalesce around the Boehner Plan.

Bill Kristol is even more direct:

To govern is to choose. To vote is to choose. To vote against John Boehner on the House floor this week in the biggest showdown of the current Congress is to choose to vote with Nancy Pelosi. To vote against Boehner is to choose to support Barack Obama. It is to choose to increase the chances that worse legislation than Boehner’s passes. And it is to choose to increase the chances that Obama emerges from this showdown politically stronger. So when the Heritage Action Fund and the Club for Growth, and Senators Vitter, Paul, et al., choose to urge House Republicans to join the Democrats to defeat Boehner, they’re choosing to side with Barack Obama.

His piece is called “A Time for Choosing.”

Both pieces share the same basic thesis:  voting against Boehner is a vote for Obama.

FILED UNDER: Deficit and Debt, US Politics, , , , , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. An Interested Party says:

    Who in his/her right mind would follow any advice given by Bill Kristol? He has proven to be spectacularly wrong time and again…

  2. OzarkHillbilly says:

    Both pieces share the same basic thesis: voting against Boehner is a vote for Obama.

    OH MY GOD< IT IS KRYPTONITE!!!!!