KHH1

Conservative disappointment with the Republican leadership on a host of issues has left some members openly calling for the leadership's removal. (AP file)

By BARBARA BOLAND (@BBATDC) • 9/13/15 7:00 PM

Conservative disappointment with the Republican leadership on a host of issues from the Iran deal, to federal funding for Planned Parenthood, to the failure to secure a budget, left some members openly calling for the leadership's removal over the weekend.

"Time for new congressional leadership," Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich. tweeted Saturday. He added: GOP leaders "in Congress refuse to listen to regular Americans."

GOP leaders "don't follow their own party platform," former Sen. Jim DeMint, who now heads up the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Sunday. "Things that were mainstay 10 years ago [like] balancing the budget, limited government, getting rid of cronyism, [are] now called radical or far right."

"We, along with millions of Americans, are frustrated that this Republican Party has not stood up to President Obama for his whole time in office," DeMint said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"The key question is: who is in charge right now?" asked Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., in an interview with the Washington Examiner. "Who is in charge right now of the United States budget?"

"I'm a member of Congress, on the Budget Committee ... and I don't know even know who is in charge of the budget process right now," said Brat.

House Republicans have passed a budget that balances over 10 years, but followup work on the annual spending bills has stalled over the last few months. Congress is expected to pass a short-term spending bill in the coming weeks to keep the government open after Sept. 30.

But conservatives are pushing for language that defunds Planned Parenthood, and generally disapprove of the way that GOP leaders are failing to handle spending in a more orderly way, with input from members.

"No one is communicating with us on the next thing coming up; it's going to come out of heaven somehow" at the last minute, said Brat. He and other members are also still fuming over the inability of Congress to block the Iran nuclear deal, which every Republican opposes.

"When Republicans are in control of both houses of Congress, and we cannot prevent [an] outcome [like the Iran deal] we have a serious problem," Brat added in a fundraising letter last week.

All year, GOP leaders have been going across the aisle and cobbling together votes from Democrats to pass bills that are deeply unpopular with conservatives.

Amash tweeted a link Friday to an article where Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called GOP efforts to remove funds for Planned Parenthood an "exercise in futility," and wrote: "We don't just need a new president. We need new leadership in Congress."

"Establishment [Republicans] say, 'Wait till we have a GOP pres.' If that happens, they'll say, 'Wait till we have a filibuster-proof majority.' #excuses," Amash tweeted.

Despite the failure of efforts to depose Boehner in the past, there is something different this time around. One of the differences is that the new wave of Republicans elected in the 2014 elections need to make good on their promises to voters.

"Our strategy is to be the people who do what we ran on," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the leader of the House Freedom Caucus, which has opposed much of Boehner's agenda, has said repeatedly.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who led an effort to unseat Boehner in July, told the Hill this week that Republicans are watching how Boehner handles Planned Parenthood, the Iran deal, and the budget.

"Really there is no line in the sand, no limited time on when or how [a vote to remove Boehner] would be done," Meadows told The Hill. "Probably the best way to say that is there are three or four [factors], and they are all running on parallel tracks."

Pundits who charge that blocking funds from reaching Planned Parenthood or attempts to end the Iran deal are pointless because President Obama will veto those bills anyway are wrong, according to Brat.

"Any great figure in history starts with insurmountable odds in the short run," said Brat. "What would the pundits say to Martin Luther King? 'Gee Martin, I don't think you're really going to get ... what you want. I don't think they're going to pass equality this year. Just give up; the votes aren't there, Martin.'"

"It's not a show vote; it's doing what you think is right," he added.

jelun

You just have to love that Jim DeMint is asking who is in charge.
Another conservative quitter, a prime example not of term limits but of those who don't have the commitment to do what they say they will.