Boehner rallies conference, but comes back to table

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) was greeted with a standing ovation from his conference Friday as Congress and the White House came to terms with the fact that the fate of the bailout proposal rests in House Republicans’ hands.

Boehner said Republicans are ready to negotiate again — a day after they walked away from negotiations on the proposal supported by the administration and congressional Democrats.

{mosads}“I don’t know what games were being played at the White House [meeting] yesterday, the ‘gang up on Boehner,’ but if they thought they were going to roll over me they are kidding themselves,” Boehner told reporters.

Republicans were upbeat as they left Friday’s meeting, a noticeable difference from those held earlier in the week with White House officials. One source in the room described it as the most “enthusiastic and upbeat” meeting they had ever attended.

Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who will represent House Republicans at the negotiating table, thanked Boehner for appointing him to speak to House Democrats, the Senate and the administration on behalf of the conference.
 
“I have already reached out to the negotiators to talk about our desire to get this done with some additional free enterprise principles,” he said, pointing to the list of principles the GOP released Thursday that was created by the GOP working group led by Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

But Republicans hinted that they were no longer wedded to the their-way-or-the-highway approach they adopted Thursday.

The Republican Study Committee has taken the lead on the GOP “alternative” proposal. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), a member of the RSC, said as he left the meeting that the conference “feels very strongly” about its free-market principles, but that it was open to compromise.

Gingrey said the conference was open to direct illiquid asset purchases — the crux of the administration’s plan — on a smaller order than the original $700 billion proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, provided the final proposal adopted a mortgage insurance platform.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said centrists would vote for a bill to rescue the financial institutions that did not include funds for the community activist group ACORN.
 
“In the end, the bill has to be done. I think that’s where they were — we need action; the moderates are kind of in a split right now,” he said, explaining that they believe that money for ACORN or unnecessary earmarks should not be included. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) also told reporters that money for ACORN should not be included in the bill.

“A plan that makes sure that the taxpayer is protected, it’s gotta have a loan provision, it’s gotta have a buyout provision and it’s gotta have an insurance provision, it’s gotta have some point of equity and it can’t fund ACORN.”

Shays added, “If the taxpayer isn’t protected, you are not going to have any votes in that conference.”