On Tuesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer speculated that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor might try to replace John Boehner as speaker of the House.
“It’s possible this is the prelude to a challenge Thursday to Boehner’s leadership by Eric Cantor,” Krauthammer said. “I think that would be quite naked to do it at this late hour, as a result of this split over the vote. Look, there are a lot of conservatives in the Republican caucus in the House who hate the bill — and for good reason. I mean, this is a complete surrender on everything. The ratio of tax cuts — of tax hikes to spending cuts — is 40 to 1, rather than 1 to 1 or 1 to 2 or 1 to 3. So, I mean it’s a complete rout by the Democrats. So it’s understandable.”
Krauthammer said that if the House rejects the Senate fiscal cliff bill, Republicans should start over with a clean slate in the new Congress.