Report: Boehner avoiding vote on his speakership before August recess
American Thinker reports:
Rep. Mark Meadows put John Boehner on the spot with his "motion to vacate" the speakership last week, and now it appears that the challenge has legs. According to an exclusive report by Matthew Boyle of Breitbart, Boehner's forces have been "whipping" members (calling them up, asking them how they would vote, and possibly applying pressure) and as a result have concluded that they would lose a vote if the matter were taken up before the August recess.
Perhaps Speaker Boehner imagines that the members will return to their districts and hear an outpouring of support for the speaker. If so, he is delusional. Much more likely is that grassroots activists will show up at town halls and ask why so few of the promises made to conservatives have been kept by the GOP-controlled Congress. Realistically, Boehner's best hope is to assemble packages of bribes and threats to use on individual members of the House, and apply them after the recess.
As Boyle notes, a parliamentary strategy exists for Meadows and his allies to force a vote:
When the August recess is over, if Meadows wants to-or any other member wants to-they could offer the motion to vacate the chair and remove Boehner as Speaker of the House as a privileged resolution, which means it gets a floor vote in full without the consent of Boehner's leadership team. That means the Speaker is extraordinarily vulnerable, and his conservative opposition could make a move whenever, wherever they want to-and when they have the votes to remove him from office.
The GOP establishment, firmly in bed with the Chamber of Commerce and unwilling to rock the boat as the conservative base demands, apparently believes that it can tough out the challenges coming its way.
From American Thinker