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welcome back to "hardball." well, it's chaos inside the republican conference right now. house speaker john boehner told his caucus today that he and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell haven't spoken to each other in two weeks. the hardliners out there seem to be waiting for a revolt. this is after the department of homeland security is two days from running dry. mitch mcconnell is trying to rally support for his plan. he wants a clean funding bill and a separate bill to counterman the president's action on immigration. it's a plan that would likely need a huge number of democratic votes to pass in the house. well, boehner swallowed that embarrassment. today he refused to show his hand when facing questions from the reporters. >> and to stop the president's
all for him? >> well, i think in the end boehner probably survives. but this is what i'll say to all the republicans watching. they all watch "fox & friends" in the morning. what were you sent to capitol hill to do? ma what did you campaign on? did you campaign on aggressive change, positive change in washington d.c.? is holding on to the current leadership really what your constituents are telling you that they want done? it seems to me that the change in november really was, my goodness, we have to do things differently. you must oppose obama then you must offer a pathway forward to economic growth, enforcing our borders, making sure that the rule of law is respected, and not i think falling into the media's theme of oh, you have to work with obama on everything. you have to be bipartisan. that's not what people voted for. they voted for a change in direction. and i'm not sure that what boehner is saying about working with the president and -- i just
make their contributors able to shut the system down even more and all these deals and, as you said, which i agree, i always thought the test was are you going to go give them nine months fully? are you going to fund the whole government? they did. and here's the problem with that. the grass roots is saying, what are you doing? you're supposed to change things. and the establishment core of the republican party, which runs the republican party, they are basically bush's supporters. that's what you're seeing. >> that's what rush limbaugh says. >> i like bush. i think he's an able man. >> a little more difficult for the very reasons that larry mentioned, we've had a lot of bushes in the last 28 years. i do think that he's his own man. he was a great governor. nobody's taking that away from him. but look at what boehner did, larry and boehner going to obama, biden, steny hoyer and harry reid and not talking to his conservative base, funding
basically bush's supporters. that's what you're seeing. >> that's what rush limbaugh says. >> i like bush. i think he's an able man. >> a little more difficult for the very reasons that larry mentioned, we've had a lot of bushes in the last 28 years. i do think that he's his own man. he was a great governor. nobody's taking that away from him. but look at what boehner did, larry and boehner going to obama, biden, steny hoyer and harry reid and not talking to his conservative base, funding obama care for the full year, kicking the can down the road, not taking advantage of the leverage of his new power. that angered a lot of conservatives including me. why not take the victory and run with it and come up with a bold vision for the future of the country and explain what conservatism means and how it will get americans back to work and energy independence and an alternative to obama care, securing the borders. it's not that hard, larry. >> yeah, and look, translate that into the presidential race
with the house's side of business. >> the senator from texas may lose a couple of allies in the house come next january. how does this funding war end? does cruz have enough teeth to stop boehner's plan? >> ted cruz's goal is to prevent boehner from having enough votes to pass a bill funding the government with only republicans. that would force him to either go back and try to get some of those conservatives on his side by maybe taking up cruz's strategy of the funding for department of homeland security or have to turn to democrats. until yesterday, it wasn't clear turning to democrats was a viable option. a lot would prefer to fund the government through the year and get rid of this fight right now. suggested they might be okay with what boehner's trying to do splitting up funding with bills that fund most of the government and then with
us we will stop president obama's amnesty. what i'm hear urging my fellow republicans to do is very very simple. do what you said you would do. >> msnbc's benji sarlen joins us from washington. what a pleasure to see you. >> good to be here. >> is it going to be cruz against boehner again? >> once again, it is going to be cruz versus boehner. we've seen this pattern before. it was most noticeable during the government shutdown which is republican leaders led by boehner come up with some kind of plan to avoid some dramatic standoff with democrats and they think they have the votes and they think they have consensus. ted cruz rallies conservatives and suddenly that's thrown in. it looks like boehner may have some other options. it certainly sets the tone for the next year. ted cruz isn't going away. and he's not done interfering
having those two things going for you. >> absolutely not. >> you have the senate and the house behind you. >> look at that tan. >> jeremy, does the speaker have a new confidence coming in to the new year? >> does. he has tremendous amount of confidence. you talk to his aides and they say they have rarely seen him this upbeat about what he can accomplish and i think that's in large part because of the type of majority he will have. the last few years his conference has been very divided because he's had a group of conservatives that he's had difficulty controlling. what boehner did this time that's different he went out and raised $100 million, got actively involved in the recruiting and campaigning for these candidates in places like upstate new york where he knew he could elect more moderate republicans that would balance out these conservatives that have been giving them trouble. 2015, it's a moment of both great promise but great peril for john boehner. >> when you say trouble over the
time. this is what he sees as only route. you ask can it succeed? that is tricky question. in the past, lawsuits brought lawsuits individually in the white us saying it lacks standing. what boehner is trying to do get the congress, house of representatives itself but their own impramatuer behind the lawsuit. that hasn't been done before. eric: jamie, say the house votes on this and passes this. does the president have a point when george w. bush and bill clinton issued more executive orders than he did and they weren't sued. >> might be, that might be a case but that is not actually what boehner is arguing here. he is not arguing the merely the numerical number of executive orders that any president has issued. he is saying, that president obama has changed laws that exceeded his authority, that he has the power to do executive orders but what he has done is beyond that power. and the courts will decide if they take this case whether that
out that word impeachment. and what does this talk mean to democrats? is this going to excite them or incite them? joining me is perry bacon and david corn. thank you so much, gentlemen. let me ask you, perry about this thing. it seems like it's the new litmus test. if you're asked about impeachment, i think this is going to continue now, they are going to be forced to say i'm just pursuing the guy. i'm not for impeaching him. it does seem to be setting a bar of craziness. your thoughts? >> it is setting a bar. it's telling you that the john boehner lawsuit didn't do any good. it was created to mollify people on the right who want to see obama taken on. obama has said i don't care what boehner thinks. i'm going to executive orders any way. and the sarah palins are mocking boehner too. what you're going to see are
columnist for "washington post," dana milbank. this would seem to only end in tears, right? what does he do now? >> i think he'll probably be okay with a lot of his base. you have to realize, just how out there sarah palin is right now. even among conservatives. nbc wall street journal had a poll saying not only do a majority of americans wish sarah palin would shut up, 40% of conservatives and 40% of republicans want her to shut up. but she's representing a minority even really among conservatives now in calling for impeachment. but there are very vocal minority. what boehner is doing is trying to take some of the wind out of their sails, saying i'm not going to give you impeachment because he knows how preposterous that would go. he's trying to just give them a little. they are going to keep pushing back at that. but he knows if he tries