House conservatives appear to be much more focused this time around on pushing John Boehner out of the Speaker's chair sooner rather than later.
National Journal is reporting that 50 or so House conservatives are looking to oust Boehner and install Eric Cantor as their stooge.
Several dozen frustrated House conservatives are scheming to infiltrate the GOP leadership next year—possibly by forcing Speaker John Boehner to step aside immediately after November's midterm elections.
The conservatives' exasperation with leadership is well known. And now, in discreet dinners at the Capitol Hill Club and in winding, hypothetical-laced email chains, they're trying to figure out what to do about it. Some say it's enough to coalesce behind—and start whipping votes for—a single conservative leadership candidate. Others want to cut a deal with Majority Leader Eric Cantor: We'll back you for speaker if you promise to bring aboard a conservative lieutenant.
But there's a more audacious option on the table, according to conservatives involved in the deliberations. They say between 40 and 50 members have already committed verbally to electing a new speaker. If those numbers hold, organizers say, they could force Boehner to step aside as speaker in late November, when the incoming GOP conference meets for the first time, by showing him that he won't have the votes to be reelected in January.
Laura Clawson at Daily Kos:
One big question, of course, is whether this band of rebels can agree on anything for long enough to get it done: Is Cantor pure enough for them? They're not sure about that—which should, as intended, keep him scared enough to do whatever they want if that's the way he gets to be speaker. Then, when it comes to the conservative deputy they'd want him to take on, who is pure enough, widely respected enough, and willing to go out on that limb now? Without a big name committed, it will be hard to build a campaign, but a big name is unlikely to commit before success is assured.
Of course, one way we could possibly frustrate the lot of them would be getting out, voting, and taking back the House.
