Tom Price rejects House speaker’s offer to avoid fight
This bit of intelligence, from Buzzfeed, concerns an obscure, internal GOP fight that could help determine the clout of the tea party movement within Congress:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Tom Price, a key conservative in the House and favorite of outside conservative activists, rejected an offer from Speaker John Boehner under which Price would drop his bid for elected leadership in return for a ceremonial spot at the table — so long as he swore fealty to Boehner’s speakership.
According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, Boehner approached the Georgia Republican with the offer hoping to circumvent an ugly fight between Price and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers over chairmanship of the House Republican Conference….
….According to these sources, Boehner offered to make Price chairman of the Elected Leadership Council, the group of GOP leaders that runs the party in the House…But Boehner’s proposal came with a catch — Price would have to swear loyalty to leadership and promise not to break with them over the next two years.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
96 comments Add your comment
yuzeyurbrane
November 12th, 2012
3:35 pm
Can’t wait until Dr. Tom is demographed out of his seat. A poor excuse of a Congressman and a doctor. Would you let this guy operate on your hip? Ask those who know.
Jim
November 12th, 2012
3:42 pm
I live in the 6th, and it is a pretty conservative district. Price’s political positions are reflective of the majority of voters in the district. There has not been a serious Democratic challenger in recent elections, but I suspect if there was, I don’t think Price would have any difficulty winning re-election. I’ve always viewed Price more of a follower than a leader. I rarely see him in the national news or proposing any new ideas. He also has not demonstrated any willingness to compromise, but I hope that changes if he is elected to a Republican leadership position. Right now we could use less ideology and more practicality in Congress to facilitate painful choices that are going to be difficult for politicians on both sides of the aisle to accept and explain/sell to their constituencies.
MANGLER
November 12th, 2012
3:46 pm
I can’t tell if Boehner is actually trying to meet Obama somewhere in the middle or not. He spent the last 3 years obstructing the President and now seems like he’s trying to somehow let something pass so he won’t take all of the blame should sequestering happen. Price is clearly more interested in his own position than the health of the Nation. Congress needs to accept the fact that the President no longer has to worry about getting reelected so he will start tossing more weight around. If he manages to continue watching over improvements despite Congress, their already abysmal approval rating will get even worse.
Travis McGee
November 12th, 2012
3:47 pm
I sent President Obama a copy of “One, Two, Three, Majic” in hopes he can put the House of Representative in “Time-Out”, if they don’t stop acting like children.
ad
November 12th, 2012
3:54 pm
This is part of Price’s long term plan of unseating Chambliss. First, he has to get his name in the news more – check. Then he makes sure everybody knows he’s right of Chambliss and bipartisanship is not in his vocabulary – check. I’m pretty sure that pragmatic solutions to our econimic issues are not part of his agenda – just moving to the Senate. This is Georgia, so it might work.
Phil Lunney
November 12th, 2012
4:00 pm
Hey that’s a great plan to get Tom out of the District, if he runs against Saxby for Senate he can’t keep his house seat.
Moderate
November 12th, 2012
4:02 pm
Political junkies are pronosticating that the composition of the electroate in Georgia Texas and Arizona will have changed enough by 2016 that all three states will be up for grabs. I believe if I were a governor congressman or senator in these states I would seriously be contemplating moving toward the political center rather than focusing on niche groups.
BSC
November 12th, 2012
4:08 pm
Dream on “moderate”…..unless people of those states want to see their state budgets in the red like other “blue” states (Kalifornia, Illinois, New Yank) they will keep on electing Republicans. Move on out to Kalifornia if it is so great.
JCampbell
November 12th, 2012
4:14 pm
Price is a right wing zealot with a fixation on power. Our district would be better served with a representative less protective of his own turf and more open to solving this country’s problems.
Ali50
November 12th, 2012
4:15 pm
Why should the Republicans bow to Obama? Because he was re-elected? Has no one heard of the separation of powers? The Legislative Branch is designed to be separate from the Executive Branch, not a mere rubber stamp. Just because Obama was re-elected does not mean ObamaCare is the right thing for this country. Greedy people will always have their hands out, especially when encouraged by the Democrats. That does not mean we should continue to fill them with freebies.
Ebenezer Snerdberg
November 12th, 2012
4:31 pm
OUR COUNTRY’S PROBLEMS, JCAMPBELL, ARE PEOPLE LIKE YOU! GO, DOC, GO!
mike
November 12th, 2012
4:35 pm
I am trying to understand why you goobers are bringing the President into this conversation. You did watch the election last week? I think it would be good to see the good ole doctor and JB fight it out. Judging by this past election think the repubs are doing just fine. It would be nice to see a meeting of the minds between all three intellectuals. That would just solify Georgia as the laughing stock it already is.
bronc62
November 12th, 2012
4:43 pm
You must be getting something for free from Obama too like the fools that re-elected him…4 more years..we will be a third world country and invaded by terrorists on a regular basis….today we find out the food stamps voters are even higher…something your honest president chose to keep from America…
Michele
November 12th, 2012
12:00 pm
What is truly needed in America is a true VOTER REVOLUTION. I think America saw it in the Presidential election this year. I think much of the country saw a solid Romney victory. Oh, what a shame! America got this one right.
Summit Dawg
November 12th, 2012
4:48 pm
Hang in there Tom, Give ‘em Hell, not an inch!!!!
kerryb
November 12th, 2012
4:53 pm
What Boehner wants is for Price to fall in line and keep his mouth shut on all the concessions he’s going to do with Obama and the Democrats.
Elliot Garcia
November 12th, 2012
4:54 pm
African American unemployment has skyrocketed under Obama. You would think that there would be outrage….no, just rejoicing….
kerryb
November 12th, 2012
5:00 pm
All of you people that want to talk about the election last Tuesday ask yourself this. With the 2010 mid term blow out of Democrats, with the Chik fil a up rising, with all of the voter enthusiasm out there for Romney the last month, and with voters itching to vote Obama and his failed policies out of office, how come Romney ended up with 2 millions votes less than what John McCain got in 2008? The reason is obvious, we are now a banana republic and you can’t trust the out come of elections any longer.
JG
November 12th, 2012
5:00 pm
Will all of the worlds politicians quit proving Darwin wrong!
S
November 12th, 2012
5:15 pm
Talk about self serving losers or just plain wacky, Ga. has the most Republican Representatives of this faction, in Washington and the State level. When are the people of Ga. going to say enough is enough to these people who do not listen to the majority of the people in their districts at the state level or in Washington. If they don’t want to work to get this Country and our State on the right track again, then their days are numbered in their office positions.
Mike
November 12th, 2012
5:16 pm
Georgia politics. What a joke. No matter who is the Republican and who is the Democrat, in most of the state the Republican wins. It doesn’t make a difference who it is. Georgians would vote for a block of wood if it had an R next to it.
J. J.
November 12th, 2012
5:17 pm
This is the problem with the HOUSE…cronyism, favoritism and worry about eveything EXCEPT the people of the country…These people and the leadership are CROOKS…and love to fight about all except the welfare of Americans
bug
November 12th, 2012
5:21 pm
It will never quit amazing me how many words it takes for the liberals to explain their position while the greatest nation on earth goes down the tube in the interest of FREEDOM!
Cosby
November 12th, 2012
5:22 pm
go for it Tom, boehner has no backbone and we need strong leadershiop before we truly are a third world country
Pete
November 12th, 2012
5:24 pm
Obvious Andy, you are the kind of person that got the GOP defeated…not willing to work with the other side. That’s the way our country has worked fo 200 years, but now all of a sudden, compromise is a dirty word. As long as you right wingers have that attitude, you will never win the Presidency again nor will you be a true national party. A majority of the American people want government that works. That attitude might play in GA but not in most of the rest of the country.
Starik
November 12th, 2012
5:25 pm
Look on the bright side – Broun and Price could be practicing Medicine. Think of the harm they could do.
RGB
November 12th, 2012
5:45 pm
For all the critics of Price on this blog there is not a single good idea among you. Not one.
So I second Summit Dawg:
Hang in there Tom, Give ‘em Hell, not an inch!!!!
Lou
November 12th, 2012
5:48 pm
How happy I was to discover in the voting booth that Tom Price is now my Congressperson and not the cretin who thinks Guam will tip over if too many soldiers set foot on it. I may disagree with Price over a lot of issues, but at least I’ll be talking to someone with two degrees from the University of Michigan and not the likes of the IQ-challenged Hank Johnson.
vince neil
November 12th, 2012
5:51 pm
idiots…your time is now…your candidate won, not his ideas…this is a cult of personality and the emperor has no clothes….where are the debates on the left..oh they don’t…talk about lockstep….just sayin..
O"blamey Obama
November 12th, 2012
6:04 pm
I am a moderate democrat in Price’s district. Hey…he won the election. Jim…Why don’t you try to convey a balanced approach to your writing in the AJC (Atlanta Communists Journal)
partlycloudy
November 12th, 2012
6:07 pm
Why must we send such idiots to congress from Georgia? But then Missouri and Indiana had idiots in congress. At least those states finally got rid of them.
Hussein
November 12th, 2012
6:20 pm
Thank you Congressman Price!
Rabbit
November 12th, 2012
6:23 pm
Price is a BAD representative on legislative matters. He is good on constituent issues and that’s why he’s almost invulnerable in his district. Those that think he is a Senate threat should see that his smarmy north Atlanta persona will never play in rural middle and south georgia .
Further, while Georgia seems pretty red right now, it pays to recall that not long ago, there was a Democratic majority. Price is incapable of escaping the wingnut bubble. This fact may become more apparent independent voter block that will inevitably grow after this election.
I don’t know Rodgers, but if the speaker can’t get a person capable of reasoning elected, the Republicans are in for more bad times.
mark
November 12th, 2012
6:45 pm
I wish that (D) would have beaten him. That would have been over the top!! The Fact that 4000 folks voted for a dead guy instead of the right wingnut from athen-clark. Prices district does contain a group of educated, middle class, white, much like Athens Those are the folks the GOP forgot about.
Fun Size
November 12th, 2012
7:30 pm
TERM LIMITS!!! No career politicians should be serving in the House or Senate!!!! We have them on the POTUS, why not our Legislative branch?
ad
November 12th, 2012
7:34 pm
partlycloudy
Why must we send such idiots to congress from Georgia? But then Missouri and Indiana had idiots in congress. At least those states finally got rid of them.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I think the problems are that the only groups involved in the early candidate selection process are those who are abnormally angry about something and those who stand to make money from one candidate or another. I guess we’re lucky we have any decent people at all in office.
puff
November 12th, 2012
7:58 pm
Price takes a backseat to no one in arrogance.
Word
November 12th, 2012
8:10 pm
Rethuglicans are yesterday’s dinosaurs.
rlm
November 12th, 2012
8:12 pm
This is not the time for Dr Price to be thinking of himself. He needs to get behind Boehner and work on compromises. Grow Up Dr. Tom.
MC
November 12th, 2012
8:39 pm
“Clout of the Tea Party”? LMAO! That all came to a screaching halt on Nov. 6.
jlmdra
November 12th, 2012
8:45 pm
Tom Price is an embarrassment to the State of Georgia. Wait, that’s not possible.
jlmdra
November 12th, 2012
8:47 pm
By Horace Nalle
As with any industry, there’s a place in American health care where big money and big ego cross paths. But in medicine, that intersection is often found in the body and mind of individual Americans.
A distinguished ophthalmologist and clinical professor at Emory, Tom Harbin provides the authoritative account of the rise and rise of Dwight Cavanagh. Performing eye surgeries in impressive numbers, Cavanagh made himself into a money machine for Emory. Not only did the institution receive reimbursement for the procedures; Cavanagh was also adept at winning grants. The whole department prospered. The University built state-of-the art facilities. Everybody seemed to win. Cavanagh was the ophthalmological equivalent of a rock star.
Except that whispers began to spread about whether the patients really needed all those operations. In one case, Cavanagh operated on the wrong eye, blinding a poor man who hadn’t clearly needed surgery in the first place. After too many operations on too many borderline patients, the hard-working, honest physicians alongside Cavanagh finally mustered the courage to question the rock star’s practices. Cynically, the Emory administration closed ranks, and it was the honest critics whose careers were stunted.
Harbin tells this true story with a novelist’s pace and an insider’s authority. Waking Up Blind succeeds because it’s a gripping story told by an authoritative physician with a graceful and unobtrusive style. It’s also an engaging account of how Big Ego and Big Health Care can actually compromise patient outcomes. Arriving in the midst of the national health care debate, Waking Up Blind couldn’t be more timely.
Idiot savant
November 12th, 2012
9:19 pm
I am a Republican, and Gingry is my Rep. His allegiance to the extremists is ill- founded and reprehensible. All he wants to do is stay in power, and thinks the Tea Party is the answer. Sadly, in my State, the far right wing is the norm.
Idiot savant
November 12th, 2012
9:20 pm
Excuse me, I meant Tom Price
5 things (other than the ‘fiscal cliff’) to watch during the lame-duck
November 13th, 2012
6:01 am
[...] In the House, keep an eye on the race to serve as the fourth-ranking Republican. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) is challenging Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to serve as chairman of the House Republican Conference in what could become an ugly battle between the caucus’s more conservative members and those loyal to Boehner. The Speaker, eager to keep a woman among the party’s top ranks, reportedly approached Price about dropping his bid in exchange for serving as chairman of the Elected Leadership Council. But Price, an outspoken conservative, would need to toe the party line, a vow he’s reportedly unwilling to make. [...]
Edmund Ruffin
November 13th, 2012
7:28 am
Boehner needs to step down and let someone lead the pack………..goes for Mitch McConnell, too. I’m with Tom Price on this one. Dems don’t compromise, Republicans do it all the time. It is time for an outright battle for the soul of this country.
MoreSo
November 13th, 2012
9:30 am
the tea party is dead–price needs to change his stripes, go moderate and suck up to boehner to keep the campaign cash coming for the 2014 election. If not, he’s going down.