Boehner Retreats On Dissenter Retribution

WASHINGTON – After withering criticism, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has reversed course and allowed a dissenting conservative to be reinstated to a key post.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., was stripped of his chairmanship of the Government Operations Subcommittee last week in a move widely acknowledged to be engineered by Boehner in retaliation for trying to slow down passage of the bill giving President Obama “fast-track” trade authority.

A Capitol Hill aide called the reversal, “A huge win for conservatives.”

It was House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who technically disciplined Meadows, but it was widely acknowledged to have been done at the behest of Boehner.

That was after Meadows voted against a procedure facilitating passage of the Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA, bill that eventually passed and gave the president the power to negotiate massive trade deals with other countries, cut Congress out of the negotiations and limit lawmakers’ participation to a simple yes or no vote when such treaties are concluded.

Boehner may have retreated not due to a change of heart, but out of fear of retaliation by conservatives, who threatened to vote with Democrats to bring the speaker’s legislative agenda to a halt.

An even more effective threat may have been when supporters of Meadows leaked word they had enough votes to side with Democrats to oust Boehner as Speaker.

“If the Democrats were to file a motion to vacate the chair and were to vote for that motion unanimously, there probably are 218 votes for it to succeed,” one member of the House Freedom Caucus told Roll Call Tuesday night.

Thursday, Chaffetz and Meadows issued a joint statement.

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