Heads are rolling in the hallowed committee rooms of the House as re-elected three-term Speaker John Boehner is said to be taking revenge on conservative hard-liners who launched a revolt in a failed attempt to deprive him of the gavel.
And politically astute observers note that the Boehner retaliation tour may be far from over.
Twenty-five of the GOP's House members voted against Boehner in the Tuesday election,
The Washington Post notes, the largest opposition in nearly a century. Boehner still won handily, with 11 more votes than he needed.
Within hours, two Florida Representatives, Daniel Webster, who ran against Boehner but drew only 12 votes, and Richard Nugent, who backed Webster, found themselves booted from the prestigious Rules Committee,
The Hill reports.
Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, said he will be blocked from sponsoring a bill and
told Bloomberg News: "I’ve already lost the authorship of one bill. Look, it shouldn’t be that way. It was going to be a bill on regulation of clean nuclear energy."
Bloomberg notes that Boehner won with 216 votes, far ahead of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Cal., who received 164 votes.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.,
told The Hill he had been promised a prestigious subcommittee chairmanship, but after he posted on Twitter that he was going to vote against Boehner, he was informed by Veterans Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Cal., that it wasn't happening.
Miller denied it,
telling The Hill: “I never said he was going to get an appointment. I did not call him and tell him he was not going to get the appointment. At no time did I tell him he was going to get a subcommittee gavel.”
Boehner supporters prefer the word "consequences" over "revenge," with Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., commenting to The Hill: "If you have a child that does something he knows is wrong, and you send him to his room, is that revenge?"
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who voted against Boehner, told The Hill that anti-Boehner voters will "be deprived of fundraising opportunities, removed from their committees and they very well may end their political careers by voting against the Speaker." Massie is in danger of losing his seats on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Oversight and Science, Space and Technology Committees.
Boehner told The Hill: "We had a situation yesterday where we had to constitute the Rules Committee because of some of the activities on the floor. Two of our members weren't put back on the committee immediately.
"We're going to have a family conversation about bringing our team together and I expect those conversations for the next couple of days will continue and we'll come to a decision about how we go forward."
The Hill notes that other top committee members, including Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., Rep. Martin Stutzman, I-Ind., Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fl., and Scott Rigell, R-Va., may find themselves in Boehner's sights as well.