Does anybody besides Boehner know what Boehner is doing?
Maybe I’m not privy to some sort of really brilliant strategy on the part of Speaker Boehner. But right now, doesn’t it look like… nothing’s happening?
I thought Guy Benson had a good idea with his Hail Mary pass of having the GOP adopt Simpson-Bowles.
(Leave it to Ezra Klein to spell out all the reasons conservatives might not want to do that, such as $2.6 trillion in tax increases over ten years and $1.4 trillion in defense cuts, worse than would be enacted under sequester. Still, as far as optics and negotiation leverage goes, this would probably do the most to blow up the “stubborn uncompromising Republicans” argument.)
So Boehner offered “the Bowles plan” and… Obama rejected it, with no discernible consequence.
Shouldn’t House Republicans be in session, and holding votes, one after the other, on all of these options? Would that be doing more to add to the argument that they’re taking actions to avert going over the fiscal cliff, and that Obama’s the one being unreasonable and stubborn and refusing to compromise?
Blowback
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Heh, Boehner has no clue what he’s doing.
Schadenfreude on December 11, 2012 at 12:31 PM
Exactly!
ButterflyDragon on December 11, 2012 at 12:35 PM
I’ll take “surrendering” for $200, Alex!
thirteen28 on December 11, 2012 at 12:36 PM
Orange-a-tan Quisling.
Rixon on December 11, 2012 at 12:40 PM
This.
I’ve reached a point of serious “who gives a (insert favorite expletive here),” though. I don’t care if we capitulate, win, or just go off the cliff anymore.
Red Cloud on December 11, 2012 at 12:42 PM
No.
Cindy Munford on December 11, 2012 at 12:42 PM
#FireBoehner
He’s in waaay over his head. Up against these thugs, he’s a knife in a gun fight. And a squish to boot.
#FireBoehner
petefrt on December 11, 2012 at 12:46 PM
Boehner knows exactly what he’s doing, he’s doing what his cronies pay him to do. If he were so incompetent he never would have risen in the ranks to become speaker. If he were so incompetent he would have long since been replaced, and after he robs America’s children blind this time, supposedly from incompetence, then he should be replaced this time, but won’t.
That’s because Boehner isn’t incompetent at all, just the opposite, really, he is very competent. The problem is that his interests and those of his cronies are at cross purposes with the American people.
FloatingRock on December 11, 2012 at 12:47 PM
Hint: it starts with a “C” and ends with “ave”.
Myron Falwell on December 11, 2012 at 12:49 PM
He’s more of a squirt gun at a neutron bomb test.
Myron Falwell on December 11, 2012 at 12:51 PM
He’s been bought off and is playing the role he’s been paid to play. Hint: John Boehner is not on our side any more than Barry Soetero is.
Right Mover on December 11, 2012 at 1:04 PM
I heard from a source on the Hill that he is sequestered in the men’s room, crying.
Norwegian on December 11, 2012 at 1:06 PM
French-Kissing obama?
Pork-Chop on December 11, 2012 at 1:30 PM
I had thought that Boehner was simply going to capitulate to Obama. Now, I’m seeing that as a best case scenario. Right now, I’m thinking that Boehner is going to negotiate himself into a worse deal than Obama’s original offer. And then he’ll claim victory and ownership of the deal so that the Republicans can take the blame for the catastrophic ramifications.
besser tot als rot on December 11, 2012 at 1:33 PM
In other words he’s going to do the same thing he did last time. I would add that after Boehner’s raw deal is passed and Obama signs it, the GOP pundit class at Fox News and elsewhere will give false credit to the tea party, pretending that the travesty they are responsible for is actually somebody else’s accomplishment.
American politics is so effed up it’s sickening.
FloatingRock on December 11, 2012 at 1:56 PM