ryan? i think the context is as i reported earlier, everyone around boehner, and that s beginning to include most of his conference, believes that he s going to retire at the end of 2014. so you have to you have to think, okay, what are we going to gain if we do, you know, stage some type of coup and overthrow him. you know, chances are pretty good that you might actually fail in your coup attempt. and then you look like a clown. or you overthrow the speaker by now in the middle of an election year by the time they get this together, and they lose the speakership itself. they don t get to be led by, you know, whoever they install in the place if those are the structural realities that underpin boehner s strength, right, then why the heck did he have to put the whole country through 16 days of shutdown? that s the thing that drives me crazy, right? if he s untouchable for the reasons you indicate, then why do why did he have to take us
far right fringe of his party is what is next for this republican caucus? joining me is joy reed, more than contributor, managing editor, and contributor and bureau chief of the huffington post . are you surprised, joy, by all the reports today that all these house republicans who made boehner do this, right? it failed miserably. it was a humiliation and all of them being like, that that is my boy. john boehner? are you kidding me? i love that dude. what is the deal? the most ironic outcome of the whole debacle is the increase in popularity of boehner among the base. this was sort of his bath in acid. he had to prove that he would do anything, climb any hill, destroy the country at the behest of the tea party. he had to go out and beat someone up. he was jumped in. how he s in now he s in the gang. is that your understanding,
gang. is that your understanding, ryan? i think the context is as i reported earlier, everyone around boehner, and that s beginning to include most of his conference, believes that he s going to retire at the end of 2014. so you have to you have to think, okay, what are we going to gain if we do, you know, stage some type of coup and overthrow him. you know, chances are pretty good that you might actually fail in your coup attempt. and then you look like a clown. or you overthrow the speaker by now in the middle of an election year by the time they get this together, and they lose the speakership itself. they don t get to be led by, you know, whoever they install in the place if those are the structural realities that underpin boehner s strength, right, then
essentially this that boehner has strengthened his hand with the caucus. that he s in better shape now than he was. that the conservatives who essentially dictated the strategy that boehner followed, they re even though they lost in they completely lost, they got nothing, they somehow are gratified by the experience of it. and i have to say, i find that more frustrating and infuriating than than the converse which is that they were angry and felt unfulfilled. it looks like this was essentially a temper tantrum for two weeks. they need get it out of their system. well, i i that may be optimistic. one of the causes i ve been pushing is to legalize the smoking of marijuana by adults instead of locking them up. apparently that may be more widespread among the republican house members than i thought because that s the only explanation i can think for this particular extreme mellowness that they are remarkable how how mellow
bother to vote. of the three republicans that didn t vote as well as nine republicans who voted against boehner. congressman labrador has been a frequent critic of speaker boehner. the question today coming out of the debacle that boehner undertook at the behest of the far right fringe of his party is what is next for this republican caucus? joining me is joy reed, more than contributor, managing editor, and contributor and bureau chief of the huffington post . are you surprised, joy, by all the reports today that all these house republicans who made boehner do this, right? it failed miserably. it was a humiliation and all of them being like, that that is my boy. john boehner? are you kidding me? i love that dude. what is the deal? the most ironic outcome of the whole debacle is the increase in popularity of boehner among the base. this was sort of his bath in acid. he had to prove that he would do anything, climb any hill, destroy the country at the behest of the tea party.