Allahpundit
HotAir.com
1/13/2012
Two words: “Speaker Cantor.”
Seriously, though, I’m skeptical that he’d do this.
House Speaker John Boehner, hoping to spare fellow Republicans a second embarrassing defeat over payroll tax cuts, is prepared to navigate around rebellious Tea Party-aligned lawmakers to get a deal, according to congressional aides…
Boehner’s office would not comment on possible divisions among Republicans in the upcoming debate over the payroll tax cut or tactics to get a bill passed. But one House Republican leadership aide told Reuters: “I think Boehner will seek a more accommodating approach to get a good percentage of Democrats to vote for it – even if it costs him a lot of House Republican freshmen.”…
Some Tea Party lawmakers, however, see round two of the payroll tax cut negotiations as another opportunity to press their demands for cuts to unemployment benefits and some federal healthcare programs and a freeze on federal workers’ pay. Those are unlikely to be accepted by Democrats who feel they have the political upper hand…
A senior Senate Republican aide said December’s drama might have even strengthened Boehner’s hand. Given that a conservative groundswell in late December to block the two-month payroll tax cut, against Boehner’s advice, “backfired in a big way,” some of those conservatives might now conclude that “Boehner knows what he’s doing” and fall into line with him.
Remember back on January 3 when a “senior White House official” floated this very idea — that Boehner should do an end-around tea partiers by making a deal with Democrats and passing the bill with help from Republican moderates?…
The article continues at HotAir.com
