House Dems wield more power than you might think

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Despite getting shellacked in November for the third consecutive congressional election, the minority House Democrats are poised to wield some weighty influence on key votes in the coming two years.

 

With bills in the House requiring only a simple majority for passage, the House minority is typically viewed as irrelevant — a portrayal that has increased as the parties have become more disciplined in recent decades.

 

But given House Speaker John Boehner’s ongoing challenge to keep his conservative flank in line, he may be forced to turn to Democrats for help in delivering votes on legislation that is divisive to his conference.

 

“When Republicans are split so badly that they can’t carry a majority on a floor vote, a substantial number of Democrats will get to choose whether to help the measure over the top and sort of marginalize the most conservative Republicans, or to … [withhold] their vote and embarrass them,” said Ramesh Ponnuru, a political expert with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning Washington think thank.

[Cyber_Liberty]

I fully expect Boehner to go to the Democrats for necessary votes to go around the conservative bloc many, many times. He's much better friends with Pelosi than he is with Gowdy.