Last week’s surprise bid by a group of House Republicans to oust Speaker John Boehner wasn’t about Boehner’s ideology, two members of the would-be rebellion said in a radio interview Thursday. It was about how Boehner uses congressional power to raise money over the interests of individual legislators.

“He’s not a policy leader. He’s a political leader. He knows how to raise money,” Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., told North Carolina radio host Tyler Cralle. “We have allowed the money to control policy in Washington, D.C.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., another lawmaker who tried to oust Boehner, said the media is wrong to portray the fight as the Tea Party versus the establishment, or some other ideological battle.

“The lobbyists in Washington, D.C. are not ideologues. They have no ideology,” Massie said with a laugh. Cralle suggested that lobbyists do believe in making money. “Well, that’s their god, too, that’s what they pray to, the money,” Massie said.

The fundamental issue, Massie continued, is about who has the power in Congress. Massie argued that the Founding Fathers never intended for the American people to be “represented by the moneyed class in Washington, D.C.”

Listen to Massie and Jones explain their opposition to Boehner on the Tyler Cralle show below:

