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 In a display of intense infighting of the sort that has consumed
the party for months, Republican presidential candidate and Senator
Ted Cruz of Texas told a crowd of applauding conservative activists
at the Value Voters Summit in Washington:
"You want to know how much each of you terrify Washington?
Yesterday, John Boehner was speaker of the House. Y'all come to town
and somehow that changes. My only request is, can you come more
often?"
When another Republican presidential hopeful, Senator Marco Rubio of
Florida, interrupted his speech at the event to relay the news that
Boehner was leaving, raucous cheers broke out.
Boehner announced he would step down in October after months of
pressure from his party's right wing, setting up a battle over
succession to the House of Representatives' top post and handing a
victory to his most vocal critics.
 One of them, Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, said
the speaker's decision "should be an absolute warning sign to
McConnell." He said the Senate leader should more assertively
promote a conservative Republican agenda, including by changing
Senate rules so that Democrats cannot easily block legislation.
Conservative Republicans have expressed frustration since the start
of 2015, after Republicans gained eight seats and the Senate
majority in the 2014 elections, about McConnell's seeming inability
to lead the chamber in a more rightward direction.
“If anyone was doubtful as to whether or not there was a group of
members who were really angry and frustrated and disappointed in how
things were going, that was put to rest. ... This anger and
frustration with how our party’s being run is real and now it’s
very, very tangible," Mulvaney told reporters outside the House
after Boehner said he was stepping down.
He said Boehner's departure had been necessary, adding, "You
absolutely have to bring the Senate into the discussion. ... That
focus now will invariably, and should turn to Mitch McConnell in the
Senate."
A McConnell spokesman declined to comment for this story.
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Representative Matt Salmon of Arizona said McConnell was the big
stumbling block to a conservative agenda that Republicans had
promised voters.
"Boehner has been tarnished by McConnell’s lack of leadership on
numerous occasions," Salmon said.
For months, some House conservatives have urged McConnell to change
the Senate's unique procedural rules so that legislation does not
need a super-majority of 60 votes to advance. The Kentucky senator
has shown no signs of pursuing this.
Meanwhile, conservatives have watched as bills such as a measure to
defund President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration
have been stopped by the 60-vote requirement.
On Thursday, the Senate defeated Republican efforts to use a funding
extension bill to cut off money to Planned Parenthood, clearing the
way for a version without that provision that extends all previous
funding through Dec. 11.
Salmon said Friday of McConnell, “He surrenders at the sight of
battle every time.”
Asked why conservatives were taking aim at their own leaders, Salmon
said, "The American people expect us to get the job done and there’s
no person that is more important than getting the job done."
(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh
and Jonathan Oatis)
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