Standing up to John Boehner.

I LIKE THEIR SPUNK: Standing up to John Boehner.

As Congress begins to negotiate several must-pass bills with President Obama, there is a sense of rebellion afoot in the House Republican conference.
Mark Meadows — a soft-spoken, well-liked Republican congressman from North Carolina — foresees in this exclusive video interview for The Daily Caller that “there’s a real battle coming” this fall witin the Republican House conference.
With regard to the government spending bill, the debt limit increase and transportation bill President Obama wants Congress to pass, Meadows says Republican leaders “need to read ‘The Art of the Deal’ by Donald Trump” as Republicans have routinely come up short in similar negotiations thus far — admitting they will not shut down the government over anything. .  . .
Since January, poor leadership strategy and messaging have left President Obama virtually unopposed. Meadows sees Congress as becoming impotent and irrelevant — a sign of eroding self-government.
He blames this primarily on a culture of enforced “timidity.”
“You are not rewarded for fighting in Washington, D.C.,” Meadows says. Republicans have various means by which to enforce their non-confrontational culture that helps liberals and the mainstream media. In this interview, the congressman provides examples of the phrases Republicans often hear. They include: “are you part of the team?” “we need to show we can govern,” and “don’t make waves.”
However, partisan Democrats seem not to have gotten this memo.
When Meadows voted his conscience against a rule vote to consider the Obama trade legislation, Meadows was punished by getting stripping of his sub-chairmanship, starting him on a path of being a public and likable rebel against Speaker Boehner. When a national backlash against Boehner started, Meadows was allowed to return. Now a growing number of dissenters are finding momentum this fall in challenging the House Speaker again. . . .
For more on Rep. Meadows, see his website here, his Facebook page here or follow him on Twitter @RepMarkMeadows.

I like Meadows and his compatriots in the House Freedom Caucus, such as Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Justin Amash (R-MI) and Raul Labrador (R-ID). They fight, and they haven’t forgotten why they were elected. They aren’t afraid to vote on controversial issues even when they lack a veto-proof supermajority. They understand that forcing President Obama to veto bills enables the American people to properly assign political accountability.
Boehner & Co. prefer to hide under a rock, quaking and soiling their undergarments while Obamasaurus ravages the land.

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Posted at 12:25 pm by Elizabeth Price Foley