Boehner fed up with tea party groups

Boehner fed up with tea party groups

Boehner not taking it anymore from conservative groups

By Deirdre Walsh, CNN Senior Congressional Producer

updated 12:26 PM EST, Fri December 13, 2013

Boehner at war with conservative groups

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• John Boehner has been target of conservative groups since taking over as Speaker
• He lashed out at them over two days, saying they've lost credibility
• October's government shutdown hurt Republicans with the public
• Boehner emphatically brought down the gavel on passage of compromise budget proposal

(CNN) -- House Speaker John Boehner is fed up with relentless criticism from outside conservative groups questioning his leadership and blasting a bipartisan budget proposal -- and he's not taking it anymore.

"I don't care what they do," Boehner said when asked on Thursday whether his rhetorical flogging of these tea party backed groups over the past two days amounted to a directive for them to cool it.

Boehner said on Wednesday that they were "misleading their followers." On Thursday, he escalated the rhetoric and effectively dismissed them.

"Frankly, I just think that they've lost all credibility."

The public dressing down made headlines, but it also was a political pivot.

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In recent months he downplayed internal GOP splits and was on the defensive about why he bent to pressure from the conservative wing of the GOP to wage what amounted to unwinnable fights with Democrats.

The inability of Boehner to control his majority in the House, many of whom take their cues from conservative advocates, has fostered perpetual gridlock on Capitol Hill and dwindling public support for Republicans and the overall Congress.

Thursday's budget vote may provided some vindication for Boehner.

A modest bipartisan compromise aimed at heading off another shutdown that trimmed the deficit and relaxed some painful sequester cuts passed with big support from both parties.

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Boehner, who rarely presides over votes, slammed down the gavel and in a booming voice -- called out the margin of passage, 332-94. Well over a majority of House Republicans went for it.

Why the move now to take on these groups? Boehner didn't see eye-to- eye with many of them for some time, but hasn't been willing to go public with his disagreements.

Those close to the Speaker say his public comments weren't any different than what he's been saying in closed-door meetings with Republican members.

One senior House GOP leadership aide told CNN that once the attacks got personal, Boehner felt the need to fight back.

"He personally has thick skin, but attacking what Chairman Ryan has done got under his skin," the aide said, referring to Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan who led the GOP effort to put together the budget deal with his Senate counterpart, Patty Murray.

The fact that conservative groups started attacking the budget deal before it was even announced particularly bothered Boehner, the aide said.

He said as much when asked by CNN's Dana Bash why he was taking them on.

"When groups come out and criticize an agreement they have never seen you begin to wonder just how credible those actions are," Boehner said. "So yesterday, when the criticism was coming, frankly, I thought it was my job and my obligation to stand up for conservatives here in the Congress who want more deficit reduction, stand up for the work that Chairman Ryan did."

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Rep Devin Nunes, a California Republican, was an outspoken critic of the strategy pushed by these same outside groups to defund Obamacare as part of a spending bill that resulted in the government shutdown in October.

He argued the groups -- like Heritage Action, Club for Growth and FreedomWorks -- all opposed the creation of the sequester and its forced spending cuts in 2011 but are now insisting that it remain in place.

Others say the blunt comments from Boehner were deliberate.

"He's disciplined and if he says something he says, it's because he wants to send a message," Rep Darrell Issa, R-California said.

At one point, Boehner acknowledged the power of these groups have had over House Republicans, saying "they pushed us into the fight to defund Obamacare and shut down the government."

After Boehner's comments on Thursday, the same groups he singled out showed no signs of backing down.

"I don't think it's for anyone in Washington to decide who has credibility," Michael Needham of Heritage Action said in an interview with CNN. "The American people have the right to be told different perspectives on a deal. We're trying to have a policy disagreement with the deal that was cut, and that's healthy."

One conservative House Republican who frequently breaks with Boehner, Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, wasn't happy about Boehner's public criticism.

He believes there will be fallout next year for the GOP.

"I'm worried about what happens in 2014 when you stick it in the eye of conservatives and say we don't need you (in) the Republican party anymore, and this is exactly a recipe for electoral disaster when we should be moving forward," he said.

But Boehner defended his credentials.

"I'm as conservative as anybody around this place," and said he had a record to back that up. "All the things we've done in the three years I've been Speaker have not violated any conservative principles, not once."

Another reason Boehner is freer to speak his mind now is that his own members learned a lesson after the government shutdown.

When the spending fight began to heat up this fall Boehner attempted to avoid a showdown that directly linked funding Obamacare to government spending bill, recognizing it would go nowhere in the Democratic-led Senate and would face a veto threat.

Boehner warned his members and worked to find alternative strategies, but he was overruled by his own caucus. After the three week standoff, public opinion polls proved Boehner was right.

Multiple House Republicans told CNN that outside groups did hold influence, but after overplaying their hand during the shutdown, their power has waned.

"I think people are beginning to figure out that they shouldn't give their voting card to a group - it's kind of an exotic strategy," Nunes said when asked what changed.

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 Boehner fed up with tea party groups