federal marriage protection and in other states. it made no sense. so tell me about that day itself, july 12th, 1996. what was the reaction from your republican colleagues after you delivered that passionate speech and indeed after the vote itself? i think there s more respect on the floor of the congress. i keep equating us to more of a club or fraternity, but at that point in time i think people respected each other for their values and what they believed. i don t think i was ostracized in any way, shape or form for that. people saw it as a voice of conviction, and they respected that. do you think that was because they were so confident in the number that in a way one member of their caucus didn t worry them? do you think if you were the swing vote i might have had the same love and affection? right. probably not. do you still consider yourself a republican?
go forward with this. what i m hearing in my in box is that the conservatives in the house republican caucus are not happy about how this has shaped up. bret: so they live to fight another day, is that the pitch that was made behind closed doors? they fight this battle using the debt ceiling as the leverage and they try to go for the spending cuts in the big changes over the next six weeks? well, downwin john boehner a different kind of speaker of the house than we he have ever seen before in this sense. whatever they want to do they will do. his members are allowed to vote, however, they are going vote. now, the hastert rule and we heard a lot about the hastert rule and i don t want to get down into the weeds here. bret: we he talked about it the majority of the majority that the speaker wouldn t bring forward a piece of legislation if the majority of his own caucus didn t have the votes for it.
of becoming law and clearly, his caucus didn t understand it either. dillon what did you think? two things. first and foremost, i think boehner was trying to get action in washington, which we haven t seen and people have been very critical of this move. i thought it was a fairly shrewd political move in that if they were able to actually get the package passed right. it would have put the ball back in the president s court and back in the senate s court and made it less likely that republicans were blamed for what i m starting to believe is the inevitable that we go over the fiscal cliff. true, it was asking the house republicans to vote for a tax increase. but it was they got some cover from grower and others and i think it was a political exercise more so than anythings and it had enabled the work, it would have changed the scenario.
democrats, all of whom are eligible for leadership at a certain point. if this caucus didn t believe in the leadership it has, it would have chosen other leaders. she would stay as leaders and say i ll stay if you stay, that is automatic renewal of a contract as i have ever seen. but when that happened, our caucus erupted in cheers that she made the decision to stay. congressman steve israel of long island, new york. thank you for taking time for us. so lawmakers meet for obama with talks on avoiding the fiscal cliff, they also face a bigger political challenge, that is disposing of the sour grapes that pickled them into near pa r paralysis. the big obstacle for that is a 60-word edict known as the pledge. and anti-tax document written by conservative activist grover
maine republican senator olympia snowe, telling me yesterday about the frustrations that led to her decision to leave the senate. major garrett is the white house correspondent for the national journal, and here is our exclusive look at their new issue out today and major joins us now. major, olympia snowe has been one of those figures in the senate that frustrates both parties. harry reid would get frustrated with her, her own caucus didn t talk to her after the stimulus vote, which is why, you know, so many of her constituents love her so much. she s an independent, a true woman in the spirit of margaret chase smith. yes. and that northeastern brand of republican, particularly in the senate, has really been either retiring off or being voted out. and olympia snowe is one of the last exemplars of that approach to senatorial politics, legislative politics within the senate, and her national party. standing athwart of her national party at times, and standing up for what she consi