Conservatives Urge Boehner to Cut a Budget Deal and Move On

Representative Michele Bachmann speaking to Tea Party demonstrators outside the US Capitol Thursday afternoon. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

NYT

Are Republicans ready to declare victory in the shutdown showdown and move on?

For days, the assumption has been that Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio was dug into his hardened position on behalf of the conservatives in his House caucus and from socially conservative voices in the Republican Party.

But now — just hours before the first government shutdown in 15 years — some of the most vocal conservatives are urging Republicans to reach a deal before a shutdown occurs. That could give Mr. Boehner the political cover he needs to cut a deal with President Obama and the Democrats.

Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, the founder of the Tea Party caucus in the House and a likely 2012 presidential candidate, wrote on Friday afternoon in a Twitter message: “I am ready for a big fight that will change the arc of history. The current fight in Washington is not that fight.”

(More here.)