Rep. Mick Mulvaney Speaks Hard Truth to Conservatives Angry at Boehner Victory

After John Boehner secured his third term as Speaker of the House, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) released a press release addressing the unsuccessful “ousting” of the Speaker. Mulvaney’s main audience are those who wanted him to vote for one of Boehner’s challengers. While sympathizing with their motives, Mulvaney wanted to clarify that the removal of the Speaker isn’t as easy as it may seem at first blush:

First, I learned two years ago that people lie about how they are going to vote. And you cannot go into this kind of fight with people you do not trust. We walked onto the floor two years ago with signed pledges – handwritten promises – from more than enough people to deny Boehner his job. But when it came time to vote, almost half of those people changed their minds – including some of those who voted against Boehner today.

This is an interesting insight that Mulvaney gives to the public, one that I brought up a few days ago. While there may have been enough votes to block Boehner on the first ballot, trust is a huge issue in collective action problems like voting. If a member is toward the beginning of the alphabet, they have to trust that if they put their neck on the line, those behind them will as well. If they don’t, they suffer the fallout of going against leadership. This incentivized members who were on the fence to go ahead and vote Boehner. Those on the fence who are towards the end of the alphabet look at those in front of them back out of their promises to vote against, and this incentivizes them to back out as well. If the votes that were counted on don’t come through, why fall on your sword? Trust among members is hard to build in a couple of days. Along those same lines, Mulvaney continues:

I also learned that the Floor of the House is the wrong place to have this battle. The hard truth is that we had an election for Speaker in November – just among Republicans. THAT was the time to fight. But not a single person ran against Boehner. Not one. If they had, we could’ve had a secret ballot to find out what the true level of opposition to John Boehner was. The truth is, there was no conservative who could beat John Boehner. Period. People can ignore that, or they can wish it away, but that is reality. [Emphasis Mine–TW]

Mulvaney seems to be spot on here. A secret ballot solves the collective action problem among members. All the costs and risks of publicly opposing the Speaker are taken away. Mulvaney doesn’t speculate as to why no one stepped forward then. Some have said that a November announcement would give Boehner two months to twist arms. This is unpersuasive after the experience of the past two Speaker battles. Having a serious Conservative challenger nominated by a secret ballot would, and will be a better option. There wasn’t one this time. Rep. Daniel Webster who received the most votes of the three challengers? A Heritage Action Score of 60%. For comparison, Mulvaney has a 91% and Boehner(!) has an 89% score. To bring it all together, the South Carolinian challenges his constituents:

Finally, the most troubling accusation I have heard regarding the Boehner vote is that I have “sold out” my conservative principles. All I can say is this: take a look at my voting record. It is one of the most conservative in Congress. And I was joined today by the likes of Jim Jordan, Raul Labrador, Trey Gowdy, Mark Sanford, Trent Franks, Tom McClintock, Matt Salmon, Tom Price, Sam Johnson, and Jeb Hensarling. If I “sold out” then I did so joined by some of the most tried and tested conservative voices in Washington.

Here is where Mulvaney may have his strongest point. We voters send as our representatives people we supposedly trust to make decisions on our behalf. None of us have met Boehner or any of the other challengers. None of us sit in on the private meetings they hold to strategize how to push conservative solutions forward. How can we praise them as conservative standard-bearers one day, and have a vote for Speaker totally unravel everything they’ve done? If they, along with the Senate were able to gain enough support to override a veto and repeal Obamacare (not likely because of the Democrats), would they still be RINO sellouts for voting for Boehner? Is that how far some conservatives have stepped outside political reality? Is it not possible that maybe Mulvaney has a point, and since we’ve trusted him and Jim Jordan before, then maybe they should get the benefit of the doubt here?