Representatives who are trying to force president obama into compromises did not get their way. Speaker boehner had to lead those republicans to this vote thats taking place right now. Joining me now, howard dean, former dnc chairman. Sam stein, Huffington Post political reporter, and we will soon, i believe, have like russert. We dont have him yet. Sam stein, this came at a at the end of a day that now seems inevitable. There was no one, absolutely no one saw a way for republicans to win in this fight when they started it. Yeah, i mean whats remarkable is that after two weeks, 2 and a half weeks time, we are ending up where we thought we would be. We wasted 24 billion in Economic Activity along the way. A lot of people had to suffer. We are ending up where the debate wouldened end up. We will Fund Government for a short period of time. Lifting the debt limit with extra ordinary msh urz aeasures. House republicans could have seen this one coming. They should have seen this one coming. They didnt do anything about it. Howard dean, this comes after an overwhelmingly positive vote in the senate. 81 senators voting in favor. Casting the reasonable vote in favor. 18, casting the unreasonable vote against it. All of the no votes coming from republicans. But i just want to read you some of the things, some of the threats that were issued to to republican senators and Democratic Senators today. By these conservative lobbying groups. One of them, the the club for growth. Put out a key vote alert. Urging all house and Senate Members to vote no on the Reid Mcconnell plan. Heritage action put out an alert saying they oppose this plan. Freedom works put on alert to all the senators and congressmen saying they oppose the plan. The lobbying groups said they were going to use this in their scorecards of ineffect who is a real conservative here. And, howard dean, 26 republican senators defied the threats. Yeah, i dont think there is anything you cant call these people conservative. Theyre just rightwing, destructive, groups that dont have americas interests at heart. For anybody to argue that you should let the United States refuse to pay its debts is irresponsible. And silly. So i think those organizations take a big hit. I think the club for growth, unmasked. Not the club for growth at all. A group captured by the koch brothers. Jim demint is evidently running the show at heritage. These people are off the charts. This is nothing conservative, refusing to pay your bills. Conservatives pay their bills. So, i this is a huge loss for the republicans. It is a huge loss for, for the rightwing. I think, people have finally stood up to them. Including the Republican Party. Thats what was necessary. We do have luke russert wired up and ready to go from capitol hill. Whats the word was the house of representatives surprised by the 26 republican senators who defied the rightwing lobbying groups and voted for this plan . No. I think it was expected. They thought it was going to get a comfortable margin out of the United States senate. That is something that helps out the gop cause. Gives them some cover. Especially the senator from a given state votes for something. Some times allows the house members of the same state to coalesce around that. You often see that with South Carolina, lawrence. What will be interesting to see on the vote coming up in the house, the numbers, during the fiscal cliff deal, similar to this, a deal that was not well liked by the conservatives in the house gop conference. They were able to get about 75plus, really led by tom cole of oklahoma. Speaker boehners close friend. More moderate guy. The groups of republicans, the cole caucus. We will see where the number is. Anywhere between 50, 75. More than 75. Then it shows a lot of folks who are, really, happy to start start getting the government off the ground, working again for the American People. Interestingly enough though, we were told john boehner, the speaker who would vote for this. As you know, lawrence. He doesnt have to. The speaker often times does not vote. He wants to show his Conference View of this measure. It is expected he will publicly support it. Eric cantor and mccarthy do. Some times the leadership splits on votes this big. You can see on the clock, bottom of the screen. 6 15 left in the vote. Luke, 216 is the winning number for tonight isnt it . Yeah, 216. Two democrats are not here. Thats why the number is there. Thats the magic number between 216 and 218. The magic number. The house gop conference. They cant reach by themselves. Hence, they will use, the House Democratic votes to get there tonight. And it is a number that if you talked, to the leadership. It haunted them. Over the last year or so. And it, really is one that, they hope how to be able to get to next year. So they will have a chance of led legislating anything and have leverage in the senate. Speaker boehner said earlier the house has fought with everything it has to convince the president of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at addressing our countrys debt and providing fairness for the American People. Under obama care. That fight will continue. Blocking the bipartisan aagreement reached today by members of the senate will not be a tactic for us. Sam stein, thats a version of that he could have given a couple of weeks ago. He could have said that three weeks ago, obviously. I think he wanted to three weeks age he was pressured into doing this. Remarkable to me. The lack of long term Strategic Thinking on the part of House Republican leadership. They could have entered this with very limited demand on obama care. Maybe the medical device tax repeal or delay. Might have been able to pluck that off. Also they could declare victory on some of the things. Spending levels will be at their desired level. They will keep sequestration in effect. They could theoretically turn and say we have won. We won the big spending battle. They didnt do that. Im curious as to why they dont step back, take a breath, and look at the long term strategic implications for party before they jump into the battles. I want to check the number. I think i said 26 republican senators voted for the bill. It was actually 26, just to keep all the scorecard clear here. Howard dean, the rightwingers who are very disappointed in this. Eric eriksson who is a rightwing dreamer and editor of red state has written this fight exposed conservative activists to the fraud they have funded. Men like Mitch Mcconnell, eric caor, preached a good sermon. Now conservatives who supported them see what this men have refused to actually practice. They have refused to actually practice what they have been preaching. It is amazing, howard dean, that this this attack is still going on. Calling people like eric cantor, frauds not conservative. Look, let me just go back to something that luke just said. I actually think that, that boehner couldnt have done this. Three weeks ago. Two weeks ago. Boehner has a problem in his caucus. These are incredibly unreasonable people. When you are willing as conservatives are, theyre not, again, theyre not conservatives. The far rightwingers. In the house or writing about it. To destroy the Credit Rating of the United States and put the economy of the United States at risk for your cause. You are not serving the American People. Boehner, i think, he hoped to be able to, to keep his caucus together. He tried for two weeks. He couldnt do it. I give boehner credit for doing the right thing. Standing up and taking a tough hit. This is something that has to be done. I think obama was right not to negotiate over Something Like the debt ceiling. I think the house is about to do the right thing. I give john boehner credit. I dont, fault, i fault boehner for letting this go this far. But i dont blame him for trying to keep his caucus together. It couldnt be done in the face of recalcitrant stubbornness, which put the party and cause before the country. What about i disagree with that. Isnt the job of leadership to tell their party and guide them and tell them limitations of certain strategic ambition. Isnt the job of leadership to say, listen, we wont be able to Fund Obama Care through this and makes no sense to do it. Confuse why boehner at the whims of the party opposed to leading it. Ive can speak to the boehner leadership style. These are, these are we havent seen people in the house since the knownothings in 1840. Boehner was dealt a bad hand. Theyre not interested in anything except their own ideology. And theyre willing to put that in front of the country. Thats exactly what they have done. I dont look, it would have been much better for the republicans if this never happened. Much better for the country if we hadnt had this fight. Boehner did what he had to do. Stand up to the rightwing. 1 30 left in the vote. It is running, very, very close at this point. Luke russert, on John Boehners leadership style. What its at issue here. When does the speaker stand up and say this is what we must do . When does the speaker have to, basically let the members discover what their own limitations are . And answers the question. John boehners leadership style since he took the gavel has been to follow where the members want to go and let the hot air out of t the place. That lets everybody bark, scream, yell. End of the day they come back home. And they do what is the smart thing. And in this case, john boehner did not want this fight. He did not want to sthut dohut e government by any means. I spoke to gop leadership aide over the summer when this idea was first born. And they all said it was one of the dumbest things they ever heard. A la what richard byrd said from South Carolina said. This group of conservatives brought them on the path. A lot of what you saw, john boehner do over the last few weeks was number one, he now is beloved by all of the conservative members. More so than he ever was. He strengthens his leadership. Number two he sort of let them see the err of their ways. We hit 216. With 18 second left in the vote. There you have it. Popped up to 218. 9 second left in the vote. Still 114 not voting. So, sitting on the sidelines. Economic catastrophe avoided. Clock ticks down. Howard dean. The leadership style of Speaker Boehner will continually be debated. The one thing that i have never heard is the name of the person who could reasonably be expected to replace him. Right. Thats a huge problem that they have. It is you know, the rest of boehners term is going to be a really rough one. He, he doesnt really have, he cant keep the party together. He does have a majority. So he can stop things. But he cant get much past unless it is really unbelievable. And i whats at stake here for these members that voted for this tonight. Is their reelection. The republican, as you know, the republican brand has gone completely. The worst numbers i have ever seen. The worst numbers that anybody poll forded for a Party Control the house i they keep doing this kind of stuff, we are going to take the house back. Against all of the odds. And they know that, they know that. And boehners got to now pull in, some how, rein in these 30 to 80, lunatics. You know, matt drudge of all people predicted to night that, the democrats will win the house back. And he did it in a tweet. Saying, Speaker Pelosi part 2. Opening january 5, 2015. Luke russert zero time on the clock for a while. Still 62 not voting. Can you explain to america how you get to continue to vote in the house of representatives when the clock shows zero. In the house, leadership, or the chair can keep the vote open on the house floor as long as they want. This is most famously during Medicare Part d, the gop house leadership didnt have the votes. Kept the flar ooor open many ho until 4 00 a. M. Able to convince republicans to come on board and pass it. What you are seeing right now. A lot of members who leadership said, you know what we would really loox yike you to vote fo this. If it gets to 21. Already there. You may not have to support it. A lot of folks stood back and saw where their colleagues went. Some times we have seen the piecemeal votes. Democrats got blue dogs, seven on capitol hill, after 2010. You are seeing the vote held open. Members can vote. See who the leadership tapped. Who is getting a free pass on this. If they need for it a tough primary or reelection in 2014, lawrence. We have 75 republican yeas. We have no democratic nays. And only 10 democrats have not yet voted. And we have got a total our total is 265 to 125. At this point. I should add right there, nancy pelosi once again delivers the vote she promised. She said she was going to get 190. She got 190. She is undefeated in terms of getting the votes she promises since her speakership in 2007. Go ahead. And contrast [ both talking at once ] howard dean first. Then sam stein. Mrpelosi deserves a lot of credit. Not an easy vote for democrats. Democrats have to support the sequester. Which they hate. Not only does pelosi get a lot of credit. I did give boehner credit for doing the right thing for the country. A lot of the democrats have put their own concerns aside and the concerns of their constituents who are suffering under the sequester. And voted this. Because they knew it was the right thing to do for the country. You know we talked about the republicans here. The democrats deserve a lot of credit for voting this. They did put their party, their party second and the country first. And a tough vote. Unpleasant vote. Anybody, progressive democrat. And sam stein. Go ahead. And to add on. And congressional aide in the house, say that the key part of the strategy. And saying to the caucus. And hold the line. She prevented john boehner. And showing measures. Broad bipartisan support. Stuck without any democrats. He got a few here and there. It didnt work, by and large. I want to congratulate congress for boldly funding the government. And they really came through. Congratulations. Necessary note, sam stein. I am jind heoined by msnbc rich wolf and former congressman from connecticut, chris shays, you were kiddconsidered a liberal republican, moderate republican, thinking of you all days there are so few republicans who approach theser use the way you have. What has this been like for you to watch this . You know it is sad. There are reasons. You need veterans there. I mean, henry hyde, conservative, but henry hyde would have set down and said guys it is not going to turn out the way you think. I can tell you why. He could give them experiences. Henry hyde knew what the debt ceiling actually was. Right . Thats true. I am not going to diss the 30 or so, what howard calls crazies. Thats why we are here. Go ahead. In their heart of hearts they belief, they believe that that the country is doomed if we dont deal with every year spend morg ing more than we have. Increasing the National Debt. When does it stop . You can say they voted for the budgets. They voted for one third of the budget. They didnt vote for the entitlements. Which are almost 2 3. And the entitlements happen on automatic pilot. Something has to happen. To me, the real test is how magnanimous is this president going to be in welling illing t negotia negotiate. He won big. Henry hyde could have told him that. Can you referee a discussion we are having about John Boehners leadership style. Do you believe it was possible for john boehner three weeks ago, to do what he did today . You cant tell them. They had to experience it. And, and they experienced it. And he now has a lot more power. Because he was willing to take a lot of grief and people accuse hem of n him of not being a great leader. This is a guy put together with ted kennedy a significant bill on education. He is a moderate republican. Excuse me, he is, i am a moderate republican. He is a conservative midwestern democrat. And he is not a social democrat. He is a good leader. And he is dealing with the hand that was dealt to him. Richard wolf, they still have not closed the vote. Hard to read. Trying to read the number. 143 the nays. And, what is it, 285. And, still for just havent quite made up their minds. Yeah. Ok. The obvious thing here is i, i beg to differ about the great leadership of john boehner. For a start he doesnt have the majority of his own caucus with him. And you could say, well he has found a path great for the country. Yeah, he took the country to the brink. Took us to the point where fitch says we are on unhealthy state for our debt. Which is, lets face it. If it was a democrat doing this. We would be hearing republicans say how he he had weakened the country. And weakened the country standing in the world. If this was president obamas leadership, they would say, he is leading from behind. Thats not leadership. It is weakness that we are seeing. And yet. And go to the vote now. Theyll announce it. The motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the Unfinished Business is the question on agreeing to the speakers approval of the journal, which the chair will put de novo, the question is on agreeing to the speakers approval of the journal, those in favor say aye. Those opposed. No. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. And the journal stands approved. So, the business is done. And chris shays, where does your party go from here in the house of representatives . What will be the lessons john boehner tells these people in the next meeting they should have just learned. I hope there is lessons for the president as well. This is not a president who reached out to any legislators like lyndon johnson, that he doesnt enjoy it. Thats one of the jouvenz the president. John doesnt have to tell them anything. They experienced it. And he was willing to go well beyond where he wanted to go. But he would not have been able what people thought. What you want. And so i think he goes in to next year having a stronger hand to be able to deal with the president. I think the ca