House Speaker John Boehner should in no way retaliate against the 25 House Republicans who voted against him for a third term as the GOP's top gun on Capitol Hill, former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says.
"My advice to the speaker is he better not," DeLay, the former Texas congressman known as "The Hammer," said Thursday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"I don't mind retaliating against members that go against the Republican caucus as a whole, but you don't retaliate because a member stands up and votes his conviction.
"And you don't retaliate because of a personal embarrassment of the speaker."
If Boehner, an Ohio Republican, does decide to punish the dissenters — who include such lawmakers as Louie Gohmert of Texas, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Steve King of Iowa — "it will backlash on him like nobody's business," according to DeLay.
That backlash could include House members telling Boehner they will never vote for a rule of order.
"If they told Boehner that they'll never vote for a rule — and you have to have a rule in order to bring any bill to the floor to debate — then Boehner can't bring any bills to the floor," DeLay said.
"You could have that kind of backlash and I hope that's what they're talking about doing, to make sure that Boehner thinks twice before he takes on and retaliates against people that have voted their convictions."
DeLay said he was convinced that Boehner could not be defeated, despite such GOP powerhouses as Louie Gohmert expressing an interest in the job — because it was too little, too late.
"Unfortunately, this plan to dethrone Boehner should have happened last summer and they should have been planning," he said.
"They should have found a candidate that would rally around them, they should have had at least – there's about 50 to 60 members that if you really had a great strategy would have voted against Boehner and it would all come down.
"In fact, I talked to some of them. They thought they had at least 31 members that had committed to vote against Boehner or vote for somebody else and it didn't happen."
DeLay also said that Democrats inadvertently helped Boehner secure a third term.
"I give credit to the Democrats for helping elect Boehner because with 20 Democrats absent, the bar for the majority is way low. So the Democrats helped elect Boehner," he said.
As to this week's kickoff of both the House and Senate being controlled by Republicans, DeLay quipped: "We're starting the year with a Boehner!"
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