Boehner prepared to sidestep the Teaparty to make a deal on tax break legislation

[DCBob]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Speaker John Boehner, hoping to spare fellow Republicans a second embarrassing defeat over payroll tax cuts, is prepared to navigate around rebellious Tea Party-aligned lawmakers to get a deal, according to congressional aides.

Republicans in the House of Representatives got a public drubbing from critics within and outside the party in December for initially refusing to approve a Senate plan to extend the tax break for 160 million Americans through February.
-snip-
Now, with Democratic and Republican negotiators preparing for a new round of talks in the coming days to extend the payroll tax cut for the rest of the year, Republican leaders are anxious to move quickly to get a deal, aides said.

Party leaders fear another battle could distract from the more important task at hand - ousting President Barack Obama from the White House and winning majority control of the Senate in the November elections. They also want to neutralize an issue that Democrats already are using to their advantage in the presidential and congressional campaigns.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/tea-party-may-rebuffed-tax-cut-showdown-060351009.html

================

The Teapartiers were already pissed about the initial deal through Feb. It will be interesting to see how they react to this. Some have already called for his head. This should be good theater!

[Champion Jack]

1. pass the...

[DCBob]

2. Republican infighting is surging at various levels.

This could get ugly and may produce a third party candidate for President.

[Doc Holliday]

14. Let's hope so.

Wouldn't a third party candidate would pretty much give Obama a second term... gift-wrapped?

[MACARD]

15. Lets hope the tea Partiers remain Ignorant and go for their third party president.

If so i see the Tea Party not only failing royally, but the Republican Party could be finished.

[ut oh]

17. We've heard the 'death knell' of both parties a bunch of times...

I think it would take A LOT more to actually destroy one of the 2 main parties. There would have to be a large financial exodus as well and I really doubt that those in power wish to build a new party from scratch.

[Major Hogwash]

3. He has no choice.

Lately, congressional favorability polls have Congress at 9%, a record low.
People are sick of them already.
The tea party faction has taken the GOP party hostage, and Boehner has to fight back now, or risk losing over 125 seats in the House of Representatives this fall.
The blowback is going to be enormous.

It may already be too late to apply a political tourniquet to stop the bleeding now.
The pendulum of anger has started to swing the other way, and the target this election cycle is the Republicans who control the House.

[aaaaaa5a]

4. We could be seeing the beginning of a seriously fractured party

1) The Democrats

2) Traditional Republicans (Example: George H. W. Bush, Richard Lugar, Colin Powell, Bob Dole etc.)

3) Tea Party (Example: George Wallace segregationists, birthers, southerners, evangelicals, old people, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Allen West, Eric Cantour etc.)

4) Ron Paul libertarians

5) Mitt Romney Moderates (Group closely aligned with traditional GOP, or a group who would have been considered conservative 20 years ago, but today are called moderates because the party has moved so far to the right. This group includes John McCain, Rudy Giuliani etc.)

[DCBob]

5. Good breakdown..

If true this bodes well for the Democrats.

[Lil Missy]

6. It's about time someone put those petulant freshman tea party pricks in their place. n/t

[hootinholler]

7. I'll believe it when I see it

Didn't he already renege because of TP pressure on a deal he made?

[DCBob]

9. Lately Boehner has been bucking the teaparty members.

He is on their shit list already and if he pulls this deal off there may be a revolt.

[hootinholler]

13. He's in a bad spot

His district is Teabagger central in Ohio. If he doesn't make the deal the Rs may well lose the house (they may well lose it anyway, but that's a digression). If he does make the deal he may well lose his seat.

He reneged on the deal in Dec because of concern for his seat, that's the only thing I can think of that would bring that kind of pressure to bear when he apparently already decided to abandon the freshmen teabaggers.

I have zero confidence he will honor any bargain without some kind of win he can point to for the teabaggers.

[drm604]

10. I think maybe the pendulum has gone as far to the right as it's going to.

When you have supporters of a Republican presidential candidate running populist pro-worker ads that criticize a Republican for acting like a Republican, something is happening.

[DCBob]

11. Yes, looks the GOPers see the teaparty as more a liability than a benefit now.

They are now trying to put the genie back in the bottle.

[Skinner]

12. Ha ha!

[Fearless]

16. Sounds like the Republican party is fracturing at the most opportune time.

[DallasNE]

18. Where Does Cantor Stand On This?

And where does Romney stand on this? Boehner is not calling the shots on this. Cantor and Romney are key (this presumes Romney wins both South Carolina and Florida). Cantor will never throw the Tea Party caucus under the bus and this is an issue where Romney could finally gain grudging support from the Tea Party -- something he has to have in November to have any shot at the Whitehouse. Boehner simply doesn't have the power to pull this off.

[DCBob]

19. Boehner is the SOTH and has quite a bit of power.

He only needs to round up enough Repub votes in allliance with the Dems to get a simple majority. I suspect he is in negotiations with Hoyer to find some common ground and get it done. The article does not mention Cantor.. he probably does not like it but I think the GOPer higher ups are pushing them to make a deal since this issue is killing them politically.