South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention in Myrtle Beach welcomed one 0f the rocks of modern day conservatism, Texas congressman Louie Gohmert. He took time on Sunday to talk with Breitbart News senior political writer Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot radio channel 125.
Gohmert along with Republican congressman Ted Yoho and Daniel Webster, both congressman from Florida, last week gave it their best to unseat Speaker of the House John Boehner, which they failed to do by a few votes.
Yet, the political undercurrents have stirred up the House and Boehner. Some recent appointments to the rules committee and comments made by the Speaker demonstrate that their efforts were not in vain. Gohmert was just awarded a sub-committee chairmanship. Moreover, Boehner and the house passed legislation last week defunding executive amnesty in the DHS appropriations bill.
Gohmert explained that he was reluctant to run for Speaker, but that he was persuaded by Thomas Massie (R-Ky) and Jim Bridenstine (R-Ok) to enter the contest. “They were telling me, look were running into a wall, people keep saying they have to vote for Boehner because nobody else has announced they are a candidate,” Gohmert said.
The Texas Tea Party favorite explained that the same thing happened two years ago. Representatives voted for Boehner for Speaker to protect their prestigious committee jobs and the money promised to them by the Speaker to massage their constituency. “So they were able to vote for Boehner and not lose that and then tell constituents, ‘Well I didn’t have a choice. There was no other announced candidate so I had to vote for Boehner.’ So the only way around that was to have an announced candidate.”
Gohmert agreed to do it, but suggested that Republicans offer other candidates as well so that “the establishment can’t just make it about this crazy Gohmert.” If others were throwing their hat in the ring then it would become clear “that it is not about me, it’s about getting another Speaker. That was the goal,” he explained. “We almost got there.”
“John Boehner’s a nice guy,” said the congressman. “He got us all to agree to make a pledge of certain principles we supported. He said we will do these items—kind of like a contract with America. Well we were given the majority and if you go back through the pledge, we didn’t keep our pledge. It also appeared that every time we got into a tough negotiation with the president we caved.”
The big question for Gohmert is “What happens from here? We have to make sure that the end result is not just total capitulation and giving the President everything he wants.”
The new appropriations bill now has to go to Senate for approval and chances are there will be modifications suggested Gohmert. Hopefully, the changes won’t be significant. He explained that when bills were sent to former Majority Leader Harry Reid often times they would get a bill with added pork that was never remotely discussed in the initial legislation. “We call those air-dropped-earmarks,” he said.
Boyle interjected that “so what your saying is we have to be on the lookout moving forward for any kind of shenanigans from the political establishment?” Gohmert said, “Yep that’s what Jefferson said, The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance. And that means voters have to be vigilant. They have to make sure they are not being fooled by what they’re told is going on. They have to get to the bottom of it. And Breitbart helps us do that by the way.”
Gohmert added that the reason that there is such a huge turnout at the South Carolina Tea Party Convention is that “Freedom loving Americans are waking up. They realize that they are losing their freedoms as the government spies on its own citizens more and more, going through their emails, having all their phone calls logged.”
The conservative from Texas recalled that:
I remember when George W. Bush was president Democrats were constantly complaining that we don’t want the government in our bedroom. Well they passed Obamacare and the consumer finance protection bureau which is going through our debits and credits now. I mean they are going in not just the bedroom but through the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen every room in the house. There is more government than ever with these guys.
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