Representative Todd Rokita (IN-4) said on a conference call the shutdown's about spending and not social issues or riders.
If he's presented with a bill that cuts spending he'll vote for it regardless of Planned Parenthood funding (and he's 100% plus pro-lifer).
It's all spending and the social issues have been
largely resolved.
More tonight...
Update: And it sounds like Rokita's well lead: read
Boehner’s leadership is tested in the budget battle.
Rokita admitted he wasn't privvy to all the details. Like what exactly did
largley resolved mean?
But Bobby Schilling fills us in,
At times, it was unclear whether Boehner could hold them together as the budget talks dragged on. Last month, 54 Republicans voted against their leadership on a bill to keep the government operating for an additional three weeks.
But by the final stretch, he appeared to have his members behind him. They cheered for Boehner in two emotional closed-door meetings this week as the teary-eyed speaker vowed to “stay on offense.”
“Guys were pretty pumped up, just for him being such a good leader and steering us the right way,” freshman Rep. Robert T. Schilling (R-Ill.) said as he emerged from one of those sessions. “He just thanked us for having his back. The guy loves the country, and he’s going to go in there and do what’s right for America.”
It was another mark of their new trust in the speaker that freshman lawmakers did not demand the details of his negotiations with the White House.
“He didn’t give us the exact numbers, and I don’t blame him,” said freshman Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.). “He’s the one negotiating at the table. He shouldn’t be undercutting his own ability to negotiate by telling everyone where he is. That doesn’t serve his purpose from the negotiating point of view.”
The Speakers building a team. Hurrah for Speaker Boehner!
Update: It looks like it all
went per plan.
As I’ve reported, Negotiation 101 tells us that a good negotiator gets the other side to “buy” something your own side doesn’t care all that much about. You keep two issues open and trade them off at the end.
Boehner did have something going for him: a completely incompetent White House. The errors include never having an alternative short-term continuing resolution on the table (letting the GOP’s short-term CR be the only “stop the shutdown” document out there for two days); not stepping in to signal that the troops would be paid in some fashion; issuing an incomprehensible veto threat with no alternative; overestimating Boehner’s need to get the Planned Parenthood rider; and underestimating Boehner’s ability to make this about the most popular issue (cutting the deficit). These major White House errors compounded the error of never getting a 2011 budget done when there were large Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate.
