Iowa Rep. Steve King upset with Boehner
http://dervishcom.blogspot.com/2012/01/iowa-rep-steve-king-upset-with-boehner.html
Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King is frustrated. A day after the conservative lawmaker opted against endorsing any of the Republican Party's presidential contenders competing in tonight's caucuses, he vented further about the party's leadership in Congress.
King expressed "real clear frustration" with the leadership of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, for two offenses in 2011: ruling out the possibility of a government shutdown during the budget debate in the spring, and ruling out a U.S. default during the debt ceiling debate in the summer. The result is an empowered president and a weakened House GOP, King said in a radio interview Tuesday morning.
"I just think we needed to draw that line and now here we are: Whatever the president is willing to fight for, the president will get," King told WMAL's Morning Majority talk show. "And we've got another year of this, and it's going to be hard to make the argument to the American people, it's going to be hard to keep our energy up, it's going to be hard to keep our base here, we've got to fight for what we believe in."
King's comments came a day after he told The Laura Ingraham Show that he sees Boehner as responsible for what he views as a weakened majority "because he is the one that began to convince the 87 freshmen you shall have to vote for a debt ceiling increase … and we are not going to have a government shutdown."
King is self-admittedly not always the voice of the Republican mainstream, but he is a popular voice among the conservative base. He did make it clear that while he's not happy with Boehner's strategic choices, he doesn't believe his speakership is threatened. "No, not at all," he told WMAL, "I'm not suggesting such a thing."
A spokesman for Boehner declined to comment on King's remarks.
However, polling suggests that King's view that Boehner should have allowed for the possibility of shutdown or default is a faulty one. The Washington Post's April 2011 poll showed that 62% of Americans thought Republicans in Congress were just playing politics over the shutdown, while 31% thought they were honestly trying to resolve the issue.
King expressed "real clear frustration" with the leadership of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, for two offenses in 2011: ruling out the possibility of a government shutdown during the budget debate in the spring, and ruling out a U.S. default during the debt ceiling debate in the summer. The result is an empowered president and a weakened House GOP, King said in a radio interview Tuesday morning.
"I just think we needed to draw that line and now here we are: Whatever the president is willing to fight for, the president will get," King told WMAL's Morning Majority talk show. "And we've got another year of this, and it's going to be hard to make the argument to the American people, it's going to be hard to keep our energy up, it's going to be hard to keep our base here, we've got to fight for what we believe in."
King's comments came a day after he told The Laura Ingraham Show that he sees Boehner as responsible for what he views as a weakened majority "because he is the one that began to convince the 87 freshmen you shall have to vote for a debt ceiling increase … and we are not going to have a government shutdown."
King is self-admittedly not always the voice of the Republican mainstream, but he is a popular voice among the conservative base. He did make it clear that while he's not happy with Boehner's strategic choices, he doesn't believe his speakership is threatened. "No, not at all," he told WMAL, "I'm not suggesting such a thing."
A spokesman for Boehner declined to comment on King's remarks.
However, polling suggests that King's view that Boehner should have allowed for the possibility of shutdown or default is a faulty one. The Washington Post's April 2011 poll showed that 62% of Americans thought Republicans in Congress were just playing politics over the shutdown, while 31% thought they were honestly trying to resolve the issue.
