Boehner wasting no time exacting revenge on those who opposed him for Speaker

In case you were wondering, Republican opposition to John Boehner for another term as speaker was not appreciated by John Boehner. And those who dared to oppose him are now discovering the price of such insolence. Harry Reid can stop passing budgets for five years and he will get no pushback from Boehner, but let a Republican vote for someone else for Speaker, and, well . . .

Addressing reporters after a meeting with rank-and-file Republicans in the Capitol basement, Boehner acknowledged stripping Florida Republican Reps. Daniel Webster and Rich Nugent of their membership on the House Rules Committee. Webster ran against Boehner for speaker, and Nugent voted for him. "Because of some of the activities on the floor, two of our members weren't put back on the committee immediately. I have not had a chance to talk to them. I have not had a chance to talk to our members," Boehner told reporters. The speaker would not rule out leveling more punishment against Republicans who opposed him. In all, 24 voted for another candidate for speaker, while one voted present. "This morning, I told the members the same thing I'm saying here: We're going to have a family conversation, which we had this morning, about bringing our team together. And I expect those conversations for the next couple of days will continue and we'll come to a decision about how we go forward," he said.

This is incredibly petty. Webster didn't do anything underhanded by running for Speaker, and Nugent didn't do anything underhanded by supporting him. The fact that Boehner held on and won - just barely, as a few more Republican votes against him would have denied him a full House majority and pushed the race to a second ballot - was a fair result at the end of a perfectly fair process that saw others willing to throw their hats in the ring.

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If Webster and Nugent had reacted to Webster's loss by deploying some sort of disruptive sabotage in the House, then you could see why Boehner might think it necessary to discipline them. But just for running against him? This sounds like a man who's taking it all very personally and has decided to have a little hissy fit to let everyone know his feelings are hurt. What Boehner would be wiser to do is to consider why so many House Republicans did not choose to support him. Quite simply, he hasn't been very effective at opposing Barack Obama's legislative agenda, and he's was an easy whipping boy for Harry Reid during the years when Reid held power as Senate Majority Leader. Theoretically, the power of the purse lies in the House, but Boehner refused to use it to rein in Democrat excesses because he was afraid of criticism from Obama, Reid and the news media. That's why House Republicans want to see someone else as Speaker. Boehner may be a very good man, but he hasn't gotten good results because he didn't have the chops to use his power. Now we have the biggest Republican majority in the House since before World War II, as well as the biggest Republican majority in the Senate since early in the Reagan Administration. That's great news, but how are they going to use it. The Boehner track record suggests it will be used very tepidly, and that's not what the country needs. If no one can challenge him without having to face petty retribution, that only reinforces the notion that Boehner is about himself and not about the results the American people need.