Iowa Rep. Steve King is among about
a dozen Republicans who say they will vote against House Speaker John Boehner when the 114th Congress convenes on Tuesday to elect leadership.
Appearing Monday on CNN's
"The Lead with Jake Tapper," King said his beef with Boehner goes back to 2010.
After a wave election in which Republicans gained 64 House seats, King said he tried to bring up an amendment to cut off all funding to implement or enforce Obamacare.
"I was blocked procedurally by an act that I think was the speaker's," he told Tapper.
Conservatives complain that Boehner has made deals with Democrats and isn't fighting hard enough for Republican principles.
President Barack Obama is violating the Constitution "at will" by signing executive actions to make changes in the Affordable Care Act and to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, King said.
"The actions of the speaker have prevented us from keeping our oath to defend the Constitution and restore the authority of Congress," he said.
Two Republicans, Florida Rep. Ted Yoho and Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert,
have said they will challenge Boehner. King said he also is trying to persuade Florida Rep. Daniel Webster to run because he once served as House speaker in his home state.
Boehner is vulnerable only if he doesn't get a majority of votes cast. That would mean 29 Republicans would have to vote against him. So far, alternative candidates don't have that much support.
Should Boehner fail to get a majority of votes, more votes will be held until someone does get a majority. A failure on a first vote likely would spur a recess in which party arm-twisting would be employed to encourage the other Republicans to withdraw their candidacies or for members to change their votes.
Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a Boehner supporter, told CNN that the Yoho and Gohmert actions are a "last-moment sideshow" that distracts from the party's message.
"I just fail to see the endgame here," Cole said.
King also talked about presidential politics, saying that former Fox News host and ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee made a "bold move" by leaving his TV gig over the weekend for a possible 2016 presidential run.
Huckabee has a strong base in Iowa both with Christian voters and with fair-tax supporters, King said.
Another likely 2016 contender, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has said he won't attend King's Iowa Freedom Summit because of a scheduling conflict.
When Tapper asked whether the more moderate Bush might simply be trying to avoid ties to the conservative King, he responded that he took Bush at his word.
"He's not afraid of confrontation. He's not afraid of verbal combat," King said of Bush.
But he warned, "Skipping Iowa is not a very good idea."
Since Ronald Reagan's second term, it has taken a victory in the Ames Straw Poll and a victory in the Iowa Caucuses to be nominated and elected president as a Republican, King noted.
"By the way, the only two people who have done that since Reagan are [Bush's] father and his brother," he said.
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