As scared as John Boehner seems to be about being deposed as Speaker of the House, one would think he'd know this
Posted by
Brian (aka trav007)
Sep 30 '13, 08:51
|
In the history of the House, no speaker has been forcibly removed from office. The closest things came, according to Catholic University political scientist Matthew N. Green, an expert on the speakership, occurred in 1910, when Republican Speaker Joe Cannon faced a revolt from a group of progressive Republicans and the Democratic delegation, which ended up stripping the heavy-handed speaker of some powers.
Notably, when Cannon requested a vote to remove him from office, the rebels caved, with Republican insurgents unwilling to accept a Democratic speaker and Democrats feeling similarly. “I was given more votes than at the beginning of Congress,” Cannon observed in his autobiography.
Likewise, when Speaker Newt Gingrich faced a brewing coup in 1997, he simply refused to resign his speakership and warned the plotters (among whom was one John Boehner) that they risked ending up with a Speaker Dick Gephardt, the Democrats’ leader. That was not likely to happen, or if it did, to last for very long, but the insurrection quickly evaporated.
|