Some Republicans are questioning Speaker John Boehner's leadership skills and
negotiating ability, but the Ohio lawmaker has three dependable allies in the
Tennessee Valley.
Despite Boehner's freshly failed bid to extend the Bush tax cuts for
households making less than $1 million per year, Georgia Rep. Tom Graves and
Tennessee Reps. Chuck Fleischmann and Scott DesJarlais expressed confidence in
their speaker late last week.
"While I may not always agree with Speaker Boehner, I do believe that he
does his best to represent the wishes of the entire Republican conference,"
DesJarlais said through a spokesman. "I will continue to support him."
None of the recently re-elected freshman legislators said they would have
voted for Boehner's much-maligned "Plan B," but all plan to back the speaker
when House leadership positions are settled and the 113th Congress begins in
January.
Influential conservative groups have called for Boehner's ouster, citing
ineffectiveness with President Barack Obama and in cutting spending. In an
article on the conservative news blog RedState, American Majority Action
founder Ned Ryun wrote, "[Boehner] should save the Republican Party the
embarrassment of a public leadership battle and resign."
Still, Fleischmann spokesman Tyler Threadgill said Chattanooga's
congressman will support the speaker for a second term. And when asked via
email if Graves would vote for Boehner, spokesman John Donnelly simply
responded, "Yes." Neither spokesman responded to the question of why.
"I think I'll leave my answer there with 'he will support him,'"
Threadgill said in a phone interview.
Boehner recently placed Fleischmann on the influential House
Appropriations Committee and helped raise $200,000 during an October 2011
Fleischmann fundraiser in downtown Chattanooga. In DesJarlais' case, the
speaker hasn't publicly criticized the 4th District Republican's personal
struggles with abortions.
But Fleischmann and DesJarlais also are close to No. 2 House Republican
and Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, considered the most likely to
usurp Boehner. Earlier this year, Cantor appeared at a $1,000-per-plate
Knoxville fundraiser for Fleischmann and a $500-per-plate Chattanooga
fundraiser for DesJarlais.
But dating back to January 2011, the GOP trio has voted with Boehner more
than 90 percent of the time on legislation, according to the Washington Post.
Fleischmann leads the way at 96 percent. High-profile defections came when the
trio opposed Boehner's summer 2011 plan to raise the debt ceiling and when
DesJarlais and Graves opposed extending the payroll tax cut later that year.
Those votes, based in tea-party-hardened fiscal conservatism, set the
stage for the local opposition to "Plan B."
In calling for an emergency vote to keep the Bush tax cuts for everyone
except millionaires, Boehner effectively stopped negotiations on a bigger
deficit deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. Without such a deal,
hundreds of billions in spending cuts and tax increases are expected to kick
in Jan. 1.
Despite Boehner's urgency and their own promises to keep taxes low,
DesJarlais and Graves opposed the speaker on Plan B. Even though the
legislation froze taxes for 99.8 percent of taxpayers, House conservatives
blocked it because it didn't stop a tax increase on millionaires and didn't do
enough to slash government spending.
Graves represents North Georgia and the anti-tax faction. He said he
would have opposed the legislation because "raising taxes has become a smoke
screen for the real problem, and that's spending."
DesJarlais used similar reasoning.
"Unfortunately, this legislation did not contain anywhere near the
sufficient level of spending cuts the overwhelming majority of my 4th District
constituents demand," said the congressman, who represents Grundy, Marion,
Sequatchie and other counties.
Fleischmann spokesman Threadgill would not reveal whether his boss would
have voted for Plan B.
"It didn't come to a vote, so I'm not going to play hypotheticals,"
Threadgill said. "His position is still that we have a spending problem, not a
revenue problem."
