That’s what the upcoming budget vote in the House is all about. The GOP wing of the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Government has let its long-simmering hostility toward conservatives finally boil over:
With a vote on a bipartisan budget deal looming, House Speaker John A. Boehner escalated his feud Thursday with outside conservative advocacy groups that have repeatedly undermined his agenda and now are taking aim at the $85 billion compromise agreement.
“Frankly, I just think they’ve lost all credibility,” Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Thursday at his weekly news briefing…
I believe that is what’s called a gauntlet, and if conservatives don’t pick it up and then devote every ounce of their energy between now and the 2014 elections to replacing Boehner as speaker and Mitch McConnell as a minority leader in Senate, then they have only themselves to blame for what is to come. From the NYT story linked above:
“Are you kidding me?” the speaker shouted, denouncing opposition to the budget accord. “There comes a point where some people step over the line. When you criticize something and you have no idea what you’re criticizing, it undermines your credibility.”
Speak for yourself, John. Or will the Right continue to allow Boehner et al. to insult them, election after election, by professing conservatism and then acting exactly as one would expect a ranking member of the Washington Generals to act? I know which way I’m betting.