Club for Growth is vowing to wield the most potent political weapon: cash. | REUTERS Conservative groups vs. Boehner

Several prominent conservative organizations lashed out against a pair of decisions by Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team as House Republicans saw their tightly held grip on the right loosen a bit on Monday.

Heritage Action, long a thorn in the side of the House Republican leadership, told its members in an email that Boehner was asking his “members to go back on their promise not to raise taxes on the American people” by putting $800 billion in new revenue into the mix of the negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff.


( Also on POLITICO: House GOP sends Obama counteroffer)

And Club for Growth, a longtime small-government group, said Reps. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) and Justin Amash (R-Mich.) were “free of the last remnants of establishment leverage against them” after they were booted from their committees by the House Republican Steering Committee for crossing leadership too often.

Club for Growth is promising the most potent political weapon — cash — to support the trio.

It doesn’t stop there. FreedomWorks, which was founded by former House Republican Leader Dick Armey, called the move to boot conservatives off certain committees a “remarkably hostile act by leadership.”

( Also on POLITICO: Report: Dick Armey quits FreedomWorks)

“FreedomWorks is urging all members to call Speaker of the House John Boehner’s office and urge him to stop the fiscal conservative purge,” FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said in a statement. “The enemies of fiscal sanity are tax-and-spend politicians, not public servants willing to say ‘enough is enough.’”

Erick Erickson’s popular RedState blog was the harshest.

In a Tuesday morning post, Erickson, the blog’s proprietor wrote under the headline, “I Am Thankful for John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy” that the the opposition is not just across the aisle, but in charge of our own side in the House of Representatives.” He was peeved about both Boehner’s offer to Obama and the committee purge.

Erickson wrote: “All the time and energy I would otherwise have to spend to convince conservatives that these gentlemen would be a problem for the GOP has been spared. They’ve proven it themselves.”

( Also on POLITICO: Sarah Palin: Sorry for calling GOP ‘wusses’)

Another banner headline on his homepage was a white flag of surrender below the headline “The Boehner Fiscal Offer.”

“Here are two things to keep in mind with regards to Boehner’s budget offer,” Daniel Horowitz wrote on RedState. “First, when you begin negotiations agreeing to 60% of the demands of the other side and fail to offer a bold contrast on the other 40%, you are headed for an outcome that is 80-90% favorable to your opponent. Second, when you need to outsource your budget plan and entire view of government to Democrat Erskine Bowles, you are relegating yourself and your party to irrelevancy.”

Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have worked assiduously to keep conservative groups on the outside in line as they try to strike a massive deal to keep taxes low on all Americans and avoid spending cuts to the Pentagon and other domestic programs.

The traditional right — The Wall Street Journal editorial page, National Review, Fox News and business-friendly analysts on CNBC — have been lockstep in line with Boehner, the result of careful outreach by leadership staff.

But now, top House leaders suddenly find themselves under fire from entities with enormous sway in GOP politics. And the groups are not mincing words.

Heritage Action accused Boehner of trying to find “creative ways to fund” President Barack Obama’s “big-government agenda.” The group also compared Boehner with someone who notoriously broke his no-tax pledge: the nation’s 41st president.

“In 1990, President George H.W. Bush broke his solemn pledge: ‘read my lips: no new taxes,’” Heritage Action wrote in the email to supporters. “It cost him the election. In more than 20 years since, congressional Republicans have avoided making the same mistake. And now, as our nation’s economy is struggling to produce growth, our leaders in Congress are about to make precisely the wrong decision.”

On Monday, in a closed meeting, House Republicans booted Amash, Schweikert, Huelskamp and Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) from plum committee assignments. Retribution for members who voted against Boehner’s team was long discussed in leadership circles. It was low-risk for Boehner — he went after three freshman and Jones, who has long been a pariah in the House Republican establishment.

Huelskamp, who lost his seat on the Budget Committee, was particularly stung. The budget is his main issue, and he sent a blistering statement Monday evening, saying “the GOP leadership might think they have silenced conservatives, but removing me and others from key committees only confirms our conservative convictions.”

“This is clearly a vindictive move, and a sure sign that the GOP establishment cannot handle disagreement,” Huelskamp said.