Tomorrow Barbara Comstock is sworn into Congress to represent the 10th Congressional district as our new Congresswoman. Her first official act will be to vote for Speaker of the House. She will be supporting the failed John Boehner. [read_more]Sunday on CNN she said,
“We voted in our conference in November, and … it was near unanimous. I think there was one weak voice that didn’t say, that may have said ‘nay.’ There hasn’t been a campaign or any phone calls that anyone has received, so I expect that will move forward very smoothly.”
That’s quite a message to Comstock’s conservative base, a base that worked hard to elect her. I don’t care how the conference voted, I care how my Congressional representative votes. I expect her to support her constituents’ wishes, not House leadership, and not ‘our conference’ whatever that may be.
A recent Caddell associates (Pat Caddell) poll showed 60% of Republicans wanted Boehner replaced as Speaker. Only 11% strongly supported keeping Boehner as Speaker of the House another 15% said they “probably” want Boehner to stay. So that’s a whopping 25% who might want him to stay vs. 60% who want him gone. More from Breitbart.com,
In addition to that condemnation of Boehner, 64 percent of the GOP voters surveyed either strongly or somewhat agree that Boehner, as Speaker of the House, has been “ineffective in opposing President Obama’s agenda.” Only 24 percent either somewhat or strongly disagree. Twelve percent didn’t know.
When asked if they “trust” Boehner to “fight for the issues that are important to most Republicans,” barely more than half of the GOP voters surveyed said they did. Fifty-two percent said they either strongly or somewhat agree that Boehner will fight for Republican issues while 37 percent either disagree Boehner will fight for Republican issues or strongly disagree. Ten percent didn’t know.
When asked if Boehner “has the best interests of the American public at heart, rather than special interests,” less than half of the GOP voters answered in the affirmative. Forty-four percent said they either somewhat or strongly agree Boehner will stand up against special interests for the American public, while 43 percent believe Boehner won’t help Americans over the general public. (Emphasis mine.)
The poll was conducted via telephone from Dec. 26 through Dec. 30, and surveyed 602 Republican voters and independents who voted Republican in 2014’s midterm elections.
Even if Comstock’s vote is only symbolic, only to show her base that she supports what they support, knowing that Boehner will win anyway, she needs to show that support to the base that elected her and vote against John Boehner for Speaker. If you agree with me, please send Barbara Comstock a message urging her to support a conservative for Speaker and not John Boehner! She needs to know her supporters are watching!
69 comments
They are taking calls now so register your displeasure for a Boehner yea vote. Any you literally are a ass-hat
No answering machine for Comstock at this time of the morning.
It’s sad that she was the best choice we had.
She’s occupied her office for less than 24 hours. This is like complaining that your friend doesn’t have cable TV immediately after he moves into a new place. Calm down.
Also, I don’t think Rep – elect Comstock is fully staffed yet, because (shocker) these things take time. It’s hard for 2 or 3 people to answer literally hundreds of phone calls
You would think in this modern era with answering machines that the transition from one to another would go smoothly. As of 8:25 there is no answer or machine picking up. The sooner you realize Comstock is not our friend the better off you will be.
Unionized federal workers set up the phones and voicemail systems in all congressional offices. And most offices on the Hill open up at 9. You literally have no idea what you are talking about.
They were not allowed to actually hire staff until January 3.
Well, she wasn’t in the beginning. We had a plethora of good people from which to choose. Unfortunately, too many folks didn’t do their homework and fell for her lack of clarity. All of this behavior was predictable along with her real agenda. The ‘bad news’ was always there to read on the website and now she is on three committees put there by Boehner. She has her perks and she doesn’t want to hear from us peons anymore. Things are not going to change much in the 10th District. If they do, it won’t be for the better
I think a more likely scenario is that Republican voters of the 10th District DID do their homework, and decided they didn’t want Bob Marshall anywhere near Congress. Same as it was when he lost a convention for Senate in 2008, and got only 6% in the primary in 2012.
A Constitutionalist or a RINO? Not a tough choice. Principles of governance or not. The choice has been made. We all live with the consequences.
LOL.
In Schoeneman’s Bearing Drift lexicon this means “lots of love” I think, could be wrong though.
Since he works on the Hill as a lobbyist, he is the only person on any blog who know what’s happening in DC. Just ask him, he’ll tell you.
I’m not the only blogger who spoke correctly about this whole manufactured nonsense – Lynn Mitchell and Justin Higgins also correctly called this out for the political theater of the absurd it is.
Unfortunately, you didn’t.
Brian, we can always count you. God love ya.
Are you a thumbs-up for Boehner guy?
Yes, I support the Speaker.
Brian – as a retired Army intelligence officer, I had to master the “art of the possible” in real life situations where lives were on the line. It is the same in the political arena, where we should expend energy only for winnable efforts, which is why I understand your contention that much of this is manufactured theater. However, I cannot fathom your support for the Speaker, whom most of us regard as an ineffective leader. Could you explain your position on Boehner?
My position is that he has done as good a job as could be expected, given the limitations of the office. Because he lead the effort to remove earmarks, he took away one of the Speaker’s most useful tools in keeping the conference in line. Because we voluntarily gave that up, anybody in the Speaker’s role would have a tough time keeping a raucous caucus like ours in line, and so his visible difficulty in getting some legislation passed was inevitable. Boehner has always wanted to get back to regular order and allow committee chairman greater responsibility, as much of that was stripped away by Pelosi during her tenure. I think that’s a good thing, and I support him for doing that.
I did not expect – and nobody really should have – that we could have made significant changes only controlling the House for the last four years. With the Senate and White House in Democratic hands, forcing change was going to be slow and difficult, but we still got some good things done, like the Budget Control Act, that actually cut government spending. We’ve learned that the Democrats don’t care about government shutdowns, and brinksmanship with a sitting lame duck President was a recipe for disaster – not politically, but from a governing point of view.
Frankly, I don’t see anybody else in the caucus, except for perhaps McCarthy or Paul Ryan, who could step up and do the job as well as Boehner has, knowing what the job is and isn’t and the constraints the Speaker has to work under.
Boehner gave away the biggest bludgeon the House had against Obama, the Power of the Purse. He’s not only ineffective, but a cowardly traitor.
This is dumb.
Something like that. This post is definitely a highlight of my day.
Let’s let them know that we do not appreciate the Cromnibus budget giving Obama all that money for another year! Why oh why a full year?!
Barbara Comstock’s phone number on the Hill is 202-225-5136. There 20 Congressman pledge to vote against Boehner tomorrow. We need 26 to take it to a second ballot. Keep up the pressure on Barbara!
29. You can’t even get basic facts that have been all over the news correct, Jeanine.
Not true. They only need 26 now. Check YOUR facts. I realize you think you know everything………..
What happened to the new you leaf you were turning over toward me? You need to be careful what you say when under the influence. No worries. I never believed it for a minute.
Citation please.
As for new leaf, what are you talking about? When was I under the influence?
One does not start off as a back bencher by picking a symbolic fight with the top person in the House. That is not the way to prepare to get real things accomplished.
Actually it is in this case. We don’t want to get the wrong things done which will be the case if Boehner continues to be Speaker. There is nothing that he has said or wants done that is on my list of things to do. The country cannot survive with the nonsense that Republicans in DC think is relevant.
Many think John Boehner should not be the next Speaker, but John Boehner will be the next Speaker.
You are probably right. Sadly, too many Republicans are deliberately clueless. Money and power is what it is all about. I might add lawlessness to the list. Constitutional principles do not even register on their radar.
Then don’t be a back bencher. Dave Brat is a Freshman who is coming out of the gate swinging.
Voting against the Speaker is a way to stay a back bencher.
Because being a front-bencher is more important that enacting the will of your constituents, eh George?
You have to work with others in Congress to enact the will of your constituents. Casting a meaningless vote against the Speaker does not help.
Also, I think most of her Constituents would prefer a Democrat as Speaker. This is a tough district for a Republican to win.
But he didn’t though. He supported Boehner at the conference in November.
Really? How do we explain Dave Brat’s vote against Boehner?
please reconsider your vote for Louis Gomert instead.
Look folks as I told any that would listen in the 10th District during the primaries there was only one conservative running in that contest and it wasn’t Barbara Comstock. But the local Tea Party folks and others were all convinced she was the real thing, I guess because she claimed to be and engaging in more then a little self delusion. This is just her first of many future establishment support votes for which she may or may not get a Boehner committee choice and a pat on the head. She mentored with a loyal, foot soldier who faithfully followed his marching orders for 33 years and will slip comfortably right into that same roll. This is not someone who leads or fights injustice in the system, period. Conservatives are going to have to become a lot sharper in judging who they support if there is any hope in returning to sound constitutional governance. If you were expecting anything more and were a voter in the 10th District we only have ourselves to blame.
Count me as sad but wiser. I’m not a voter in the 10th District but did contribute a couple times to her campaign. Can I get my money back? 🙁
Here’s the problem. No tea party folks that I know voted for her in the primaries. She wouldn’t even come to tea party meetings to talk to them. She was afraid to come. In fact it got so bad that negotiations had to be with her staff and eventually they broke down because she wanted too much. Unbelievable what went on there. This is the result of people not doing their homework. I would love to hear Mark Levin’s reasoning on why he endorsed her because he did in the beginning. That is where she got early tea party support because they and Mark didn’t do any more homework on where she got her money and other things. It was all on her website and it wasn’t pretty.
Levin also supported Allen right out of the gate. He talks out of both sides of his mouth, very convenient.
She can be counted on…….to be as gutless as all the other RINO Republicans she’s joining. She’s in this out of ambition and greed, and will never represent her conservative base in any way. Frank Wolf should be ashamed of himself for endorsing her, in a commercial no less. I could puke.
Brat supported Boehner in the conference but has wisely come out against Bhim with an op ed in breitbart.com today.
This is totally predictable, Comstock is just representative of the go along get along republicans in nova.
Sad, but true.
I guess Morgan Griffith is an establishment hack too . . .http://morgangriffith.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=QUHCFYZLXB657KMPYRXU6IYMJE
Looks like he has faith in a man who has lied to him and the rest of the Republicans in the House. Clueless.
Griffith’s statement about all this is posted on a similar-themed thread at Bearing Drift. He said at the conference on 11/13/14 where the Speaker was elected, no one but John Boehner was nominated.
It’s true, but now things have changed. It’s time to step up and figure out what is going on in DC. Vote like your life depends on it, because it does. Apparently he doesn’t understand what the right thing is.
Not too surprising, she was a lackey for Speaker Howell and Joe May in the VA House
Not true. She voted against Bob McDonnell and Howell’s massive Transportation Tax increase.
Good point. On real votes, she votes conservative.
Rumors are that Comstock is hearing from so many constituents she has disconnected her phones. Could that possibly be true? Can anyone confirm that? Have you tried to contact her offices and been unable to get through?
Of course it is true.
She hasn’t yet been sworn in and is still in the process of setting up her office/connecting phones and such. Ridiculous to suggest that her staff would be intentionally ignoring constituents.
But she is.
The first days of a new Congress are an orchestrated chaos. Office are being set up, computers moved, wires shifted from here to there. Phones go down, phones go up. I spent a number of years working in congressional offices conducting the chaos that is the first week of Congress. Staff doesn’t disconnect phones, Internet, etc. It’s the process of getting up and running.
She has her office phones and no one is answering those either.
are you saying that she disconnected her phones???? are you in her office looking at the disconnected phones? how else would you know?
Don’t know if they are disconnected or not. She’s not answering. She’s hiding. Expect this to be her MO from now on.
Can you leave a message? 202-225-5136
She is nothing more than just an Establishment RINO. VA Reps are very disappointing.
Except for Dave Brat!
AMEN! Dave Brat has shown more courage and principles than many others who’ve been in office for decades!
Wait…who is Brat voting for???
i’ve re-read this 3 times. Cong Comstock voted for Boehner in November–isn’t this what she said? While Caddell’s polling is interesting, it doesn’t bear on Nov 2014’s election of John Boehner as Speaker.
where was this hue & cry in November?
Yes, the poll directly bears on tomorrow’s 2015 election. He surveyed republicans who voted in November’s election, two months ago.
I believe I can lay claim that I am the only one in here who can write, “I told you so”?
How many times did I write and warn about the “Liberal” Comstock?
A Liberal in Richmond, A Liberal in DC!
The people who voted for her got exactly what they deserve!
Ha, ha, ha!
No true many people did not support Barbara in the primary canvass, including moi.
It’s been there all along. It was obvious that she never answered who she supported as Speaker when she was running in the primaries. That’s why Frederick County voted for Bob Marshall. We knew he wouldn’t vote for Boehner. We didn’t even get a Republican in office this time. It’s beyond disappointing. It’s dangerous.