As you know, earlier this week the Republican-controlled House voted 221-201 to give Barack Obama and the Democrats a blank check to spend as much as they want through March of next year by suspending the federal debt limit.

It was House Speaker John Boehner's decision to allow this vote, which was passed with the support of only 28 Republicans.

Why did he do this?

He did it because Boehner is what I call "an establishment Republican," in the model of George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Karl Rove, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller. As big-government Republicans, they do the bidding of corporate interests, bankers and the elite – not the people and the Constitution. Most of Boehner's Republican caucus, as can be illustrated with the vote of 201 GOP House members, are not establishment, big-government Republicans, thank goodness.

The vote came only a few days after Boehner was dressed down behind closed doors by about 80 members of his caucus on his plan for "comprehensive immigration reform," otherwise known as amnesty for millions of illegal aliens – an action that would have been the gift that keeps on giving to the Democratic Party for the next 100 years.

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Boehner's caucus told him in no uncertain terms that if he continued to push the plan, he would no longer be speaker. So he surprised observers by publicly announcing the plan was dead in the water.

Probably, as a result of that meeting, Boehner decided to stick it to the vast majority of his caucus by allowing the vote on this unconscionable, immoral sellout on the debt limit – what I have called "the suitcase nuke" Republicans held as long as they controlled the House. By freezing the debt limit – or even by using it as a bargaining chip – Republicans in the House held in their hands real power. They could have killed Obamacare with it. They could have killed entire unconstitutional agencies of the federal government. They could have, if they used it properly, even begun returning Washington to something resembling constitutionally limited government.

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That's how important borrowing is to Washington. And Republicans had all the power to say no to more borrowing.

Boehner never wanted to use that leverage. Shortly after becoming speaker in 2011, he announced that without question the debt limit would be raised. And he ensured that it happened again and again since then.

So the real question is not why he did it. The real question is: Why is he still speaker?

He's a disaster for the party – as the party heads into a critically important mid-term election that will decide who controls not just the House but the Senate, too.

I remember when I began working on the "No More Red Ink Campaign" in early 2011. The idea was to persuade the House Republicans to use that suitcase nuke they held by saying no to any future debt-ceiling increase. We bombarded the House Republicans with red letters urging them to stand firm against more borrowing. We surveyed them to find out where they stood. At one point, 187 House Republicans stood opposed to raising the debt limit in 2011.

But then Boehner and his leadership team went to work on his cause – twisting arms, cajoling, handing out favors and offering better committee assignments. We saw that 187 number start dropping like a rock. In the subsequent vote, only 22 House Republicans actually opposed the hike.

The vote by 201 Republicans this week against Boehner and the leadership suggests to me he has completely lost control of his caucus. It suggests to me that he holds no hope of retaining the speakership after the November election. It suggests to me Boehner is more committed to the establishment he serves than to the body that chose him as speaker – and certainly more committed to big-government Republicanism than he is to the Constitution and the will of the people.

Do you know that 80 to 85 percent of Republicans want Congress to freeze the debt limit?

Do you know that 70 percent of independents want Congress to freeze the debt limit?

Do you know that 60 percent of Democrats want Congress to freeze the debt limit?

That's what the polls show.

It would seem Republicans could ride that wave to victory easily in any election. But McCain opposed freezing the debt. Romney opposed freezing the debt. Boehner opposes freezing the debt. And McConnell opposes freezing the debt.

So what do Republican voters do in the 2014 election?

The only option is to support Republican candidates pledged to dump the old leaders and the old establishment ideas.

With two three more years of Obama in the White House, we need a real opposition force in Congress – not leaders in the House and Senate who are enablers, appeasers and accommodationists.

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