Mark Meadows Stands up to Boehner

By Daniel Horowitz. Yesterday, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), embarked on the most important mission any self-described conservative representative can undertake as a member of this Congress.

He filed a motion to vacate the chair, which commences the process through which a group of roughly 30 conservatives can remove John Boehner from the Speaker’s chair and restore some measure of deterrent against Obama’s impending transformational agenda during his last 18 months in office. In other words, Meadows pulled the trigger on the one thing that actually matters.

We live in an unprecedented time with a president that is hell-bent on dismantling our values, borders, economy, criminal justice system, and national security. At the same time, there has been absolutely no opposition to any of Obama’s policies from the GOP leadership. It is obvious Obama knows it. There’s a sense of desperation and hopelessness among Republicans across the nation. Mark Meadows has finally given those people a voice.

As long as both houses of Congress are controlled by those who are given to every whim of this imperial president, there will be no deterrent against his malfeasance – no matter how unlawful, no matter how toxic to the fabric of this nation. There is nothing stopping Obama from commuting sentences and pardoning criminals, essentially emptying the federal prisons in his final year. There is nothing stopping him from abusing his executive waiver authority to let in even more illegal immigrants. There is nothing to deter him from embracing even more of our nation’s enemies in his final months. Boehner and McConnell have ruled out using the one deterrent against such behavior – the power of the purse.

Conservatives have many good ideas to use Congress as both a check on Obama’s power and an effective messaging tool as it relates to Iran, illegal immigration, religious liberty, and a host of other fundamental issues. However, not a single one of those issues will be fought even half-heartedly until conservatives reassert a modicum of control over at least one house of Congress. And that will not happen as long as John Boehner is occupying the Speaker’s chair.

This is where Mark Meadows comes in, by introducing a resolution to vacate the chair.

According to House rules, any member can offer a motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair and force a de facto ‘vote of no confidence’ in the Speaker. Under normal circumstances, an individual member has no power to force a vote on any bill or resolution, but the motion to vacate is “privileged.” Meadows, however, filed his motion in a “non-privileged form,” which means the motion does not require immediate consideration. There is nothing Boehner can do to block the motion.

The genius of this strategy is that there is no pressure on the conservative side like there was in January when they had to muster the 30 votes at a specific date – the day of the Speaker’s election. Meadows intends for this resolution to hang over Boehner’s head for as long or as short as needed to gather the votes. This will place enormous pressure on members headed into the August recess to declare their support or opposition for John Boehner.

Remember the tens of thousands of phone calls that flooded the capitol switchboard in January? And that was before the series of great betrayals over the past few months.

Some members will attempt to weasel their way out of their responsibility by claiming that there is no alternative. But that is nonsense. As soon as Boehner is deposed, there will be plenty of options on the table. Last time, Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), tossed his hat into the ring for the Speaker nomination. While Webster is not necessarily a member who is well-established in the conservative movement, he respects regular order and would at least give conservatives a seat at the table in setting the agenda. There’s no reason that someone like him won’t toss his hat into the ring this time.

More importantly, Boehner must be removed from his position of power because he (along with McConnell) is seriously jeopardizing the chance to win back the White House. By obfuscating the party divide and ignoring every harmful and unpopular action of this president, Republican leaders are artificially inflating Obama’s popularity and depressing potential conservative turnout in the upcoming election.

Every GOP representative will go home this August to his or her district and extol the virtues of their service and how they oppose illegal immigration, the Iran alliance, Planned Parenthood, and are deeply concerned about the growing threats to religious liberty. They will also tout some legislation they have introduced to tackle these important issues. But none of this will matter if they fail to categorically commit to dethroning John Boehner. Unless he is removed from the Speaker’s office, not a single conservative priority will be championed nor will a single imperial act of Obama’s be countermanded in a meaningful way. Nothing else matters other than the Speaker’s vote.

Yesterday was Mark Meadows’s Moses moment, when Moses went to the gate of the camp and declared, “Whoever is for the Lord, [let him come] to me!” [Exodus 32:26].

It will soon become apparent who the Levites of our generation are, and we will be keeping track. (Re-posted with permission from the author, “Mark Meadows Stands up to Boehner”, originally appeared HERE)

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Things You Might Not Know About Mark Meadows

Natalie Johnson of the Daily Signal provides some insight into Rep. Mark Meadows’ quality personality and unique experiences:

1. Meadows’ attempt to unseat Speaker Boehner is not the first time he has rebelled against Washington’s power players. Last month, Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, temporarily removed Meadows from his subcommittee chairmanship for voting against a motion to advance President Obama’s trade bill.

2. Meadows was a key player in the 2013 government shutdown, sending a letter to Boehner just eight months after taking office encouraging him to halt any appropriations bill including Obamacare funding. CNN went as far as to call Meadows the “architect” of and “man behind” the shutdown.

3. He has a cordial reputation on Capitol Hill. Both Democrats and Republicans call him one of the “nicest guys” in D.C., Politico reports, and The Washington Post dubbed him the “friendliest guy in the House.”

4. His affable personality shows in interviews. Just days after Chaffetz stripped his chairmanship, Meadows told The Washington Post, “I love people.” “Every single week, I try to find at least seven different people with something unique and admirable about them, and I share that with them. D.C. is not going to change me on that, even today.”

5. Meadows was first elected to Congress in 2012 following redistricting in North Carolina, which shifted his district from “slightly” Republican to solid.

6. His seat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee allowed him to play a lead role in pushing Congress to investigate the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups.

7. His position also launched him as central in forcing the resignation of Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta in July following the department’s massive data breach exposing 21.5 million Social Security numbers.

8. He grew up in Tampa Bay, Florida, describing himself as a “fat nerd” during his early years. He decided to lose weight after he attempted to ask a girl out only to be shot down. “I went home and looked in the mirror and said, ‘You’re fat.’ So, I started almost immediately to run a mile to lose weight,” Meadows recalled.

9. He caught the attention of his wife, Debbie, in high school after he lost weight, becoming “unrecognizable” even to her—she thought he was a new student. They both graduated from the University of South Florida.

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