Reality, "reality" and the overarching precariousness of the moment

Contemplate if you will the various levels of consideration involved in the dethrone-Boehner effort.

In a column filled, unsurprisingly, with hefty dollops of snark, gloating, and trotting out of tangential details the sum of which is designed to make the major anti-Boehner figures look as wacky as possible, Dana Milbank does offer a paragraph of plain truth that must be grappled with:

The sweeping electoral victory for House Republicans in November was, paradoxically, not necessarily a good development for conservatives. Republicans padded their majority by 13 seats, and the number of Republicans loyal to Boehner grew by about 15 — meaning Boehner can afford to lose the votes of the most hard-core conservatives, about two dozen in total, and still get legislation passed. If he’s willing to woo a few Democrats, he can all but ignore the far right in his caucus for the next two years.

So there's that.

Then consider the degree to which the greased palm facilitates the spread of Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome.  No one embodies this phenomenon better than John Feehery:

Last year the Republican Senate nominee for Virginia was former Republican National Chairman and ex-Bush 43 White House aide Ed Gillespie. Mr. Gillespie, as was well known, is a lobbyist, specifically, the “G” in QGA Public Affairs — Quinn Gillespie & Associates. Last fall Mr. Gillespie — whom I knew a bit when we were, ah, younger — gave a very perceptive speech to the Republican Party of Virginia. He spoke of the dangers that came from the massive growth of Big Government, creating what he called the “influence economy” as opposed to the long American tradition of a free market economy. The Wall Street Journal published an excerpt in its December 8, 2014 “Notable & Quotable” section. In part, Gillespie said:

We can see an influence economy starting to take shape. CEO’s are becoming less concerned about inventing the right products, targeting the right markets and hiring the right people in hopes of making a respectable profit for investors — and more concerned about getting the right lobbyists, retaining the right lawyers and attending the right fundraisers in hopes of getting a hefty subsidy from taxpayers.
Making the right campaign contributions are becoming as important to a company as its research and development budget, and federal-compliance lawyers will soon outnumber patent lawyers.

Ed Gillespie is exactly right. Ironically, no better example of “the influence economy” at work is to be had than in the news stories concerning Congressman Scalise’s relationship with lobbyist John Feehery. Mr. Feehery is the president of the communications shop at — drumroll please — Ed Gillespie’s own firm, QGA. Over here at Politico last Augustthe story, running under the headline "To pick staff, Scalise turns to lobbyist," began this way:

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise got some help interviewing potential new hires for his press shop from an unlikely source: a federal lobbyist.

Quinn Gillespie & Associates’ John Feehery sat in on and participated in multiple official interviews with job candidates last month for the new majority whip’s press operation. Scalise has not yet announced who he will name as his communications director.
Sometimes lawmakers rely on lobbyists for strategic advice. But inviting a lobbyist into an interview is highly unusual. Several ethics lawyers and current and former leadership aides said they have never heard of a similar arrangement.
Scalise enjoys closer relationships with lobbyists than many House conservatives — a reality that is sometimes helpful but also adds to his reputation of being closer to the establishment wing of the party than some in the conference had wanted.
Feehery is registered to lobby on behalf of major corporations like AT&T, Sony Corp., Qualcomm, 21st Century Fox and others that have interests before Congress and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which Scalise is a member.

And Feehery isn't afraid to express quite publicly his contempt for actual conservatives:

All this tells a considerable amount about what passes for the unremarkable inside the Washington establishment. For Feehery spends his time continually attacking conservatives. There was this open letter attack on Rush Limbaugh in Politico in which he snarked:

Congratulations! You have been selected by the Obama administration, the mainstream media and 20 million of your most passionate followers to be the new head of the Republican Party.
As such, you are given all the rights and responsibilities that come with being a true political leader.
Your mission is simple: Restore the Republican Party to its former greatness by single-handedly helping Republicans to regain control of Congress and to offer a reasonable and viable alternative to President Barack Obama.

Ironically, snark aside, that mission has now been accomplished. With no small thanks to, yes, talk radio and conservatives in the media, the GOP in fact now has control of Congress. 

In this jewel of a blog post Feehery opined in a headline that “The Tea Party Must Be Crushed.” So much for the Reaganite base of the party. Or another blog post here supporting “Amnesty for Amnesty.” And so it goes — there are more of these “Feehery Theories” out there. But Feehery personally isn’t the issue. The issue here is as Ed Gillespie nails it — the growing role of the “influence economy” of which Scalise’s ties to Feehery are merely but the latest representation.

I know it's trite to ascribe all of the Beltway's dysfunction to influence-peddling, ego-stroking and wads of cash.  One hopes that the dim flicker of principle is still discernible through the thick smoke of the back room.  Alas, Occam's Razor does indeed seem to apply here.

Then there's the hardball among the House Pubs themselves.  Louie Gohmert, about whom I wrote a praising post a couple of days ago, says that there's "real intimidation" going on.   What we already knew about Boehner's style - and the understanding implicit in any Speaker's relationship with his or her partisan brethren in that chamber - namely, that juicy committee assignments are contingent upon playing ball, is in full force right now.

Then there are the noble troops on the ground.  The celebrities of our movement: Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro.  The tireless and indispensable organizations: FreedomWorks, Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity, Heritage Action.  Groups that have been at the forefront of every seemingly quixotic effort of the last few years: defunding Freedom-Hater-care, stopping amnesty for illegal aliens, squelching the perception of the inevitability of never-ending debt ceiling increases.

Then, of course, there is the array of actual enemies before us, beginning with the Democrat party, and including the arbiters of our flatlining culture, the jihadists and the rogue states (several of which either have nuclear arsenals or breakout status).  Let's not, in the multilayered intensity of the political moment, forget the existential threat that they individually and collectively pose.

Will Boehner survive?  It gives me no pleasure to conclude that it's likely.  But all is not lost (as it never is in a universe ultimately governed by Him).  Boehner, Feehery, Jeb Bush, Pete Wehner, David Brooks, Jennifer Rubin, The US Chamber of Commerce, the No Labels movement et al - and the likes of Dana Milbank - know who we are, know the intensity of our determination, and know that we don't do defeat.

That's why, whether your weapon of choice is phone-melting, blogging, running for office or talking on the radio, your work is crucial.

Do not relent.