It’s really stunning how weak Speaker Boehner is. He can’t even articulate a strategy for immigration reform. So, we’re left to trying to imagine how he might go about either passing or killing reform. He could do this or he could do that, but he can’t do this and he can’t do that.
He’s painted himself into a corner where he can’t do anything that doesn’t have the support of the majority of his caucus, but he doesn’t have the balls to say that he doesn’t intend to pass immigration reform. The result is that he has to pretend that he is going to do something, but whatever he does will be purely for show. He wants to be able to say that he tried and he wants to be able to blame someone other than his own caucus for his failure. That’s the only strategy he has. It’s pathetic.
The only way immigration reform hits the floor of the House is with a discharge petition with Dems and 18 or so Republicans signing on.
I am curious if Nancy Pelosi will start a discharge petition or just run on the House GOP refusing a vote on immigration reform. Dems could make a campaign promise to vote on Senate’s immigration bill within the 1st 10 days of new term, if they control the House.
Though a discharge petition will almost certainly fail, I could see Pelosi initiating one just to highlight the unwillingness of the Republicans to vote on immigration.
He could take a corner too fast in his golf cart and be hospitalized for a hangnail for 3 months in which case we’d see Stupid step up to the mark.
In what ways has his weakness negatively affected his future net worth or that of his caucus? Are we sure this is a bug, not a feature? A Democrat saying, ‘that Republican is weak, he can’t enact effective legislation’ is like a hen saying, ‘that fox is weak, he can’t hatch any chickens!’
We’ll have to wait until November 2014 to know for sure. For all the warnings about not setting our hopes for the midterms too high, the Republicans sure seem intent on pushing their luck as far as possible. Their hopes depend on low turnout, but it’s hard to imagine anything that would get more Latinos to the polls than not even having a vote on immigration. And of course Latinos are just one group the GOP is shitting on.
Yeah, good point. (Although the question is if he’s too weak to legislate, not too weak to grow his caucus, which presume that he wants to legislate. He’s a Republican. Why legislate when you can dismantle?)
And what would you say about Boehner’s ‘achievements’ to date? He’s presided over a cause that’s thrown so much of their own feces at Obamacare that they’ve made much of the stink stick, he’s presided over the sequester, the normalizing of hostage-taking …
I don’t know. I largely playing devil’s advocate, but I think there’s an element here of blaming Boehner for not being a Democrat. Is legislating in his personal interest? Hell, is legislating in his party’s interest? They are philosophically wed to the idea that the government is the problem; if they offer solutions, they undermine their own principles.
There’s no question the GOP is challenging Latinos to flex some political muscle. The August recess will be interesting. Let’s see what they can pull off.
In 2010, President Obama warned the GOP House members about painting themselves into a corner ideologically. Mission accomplished.
Ah, that explains why the man is Jennifer Rubin’s Distinguished Pol of the Weak!
No wonder the poor schlub’s a drunk.
The Drunken Boner was never going to win any American Hero awards for political resolve, that’s been clear for a long time. He has very broad power, but apparently hasn’t any idea how to use it, while we have to hear weekly from our useless corporate teevee “news” regime that Obama is the weak one, LOL. The pathetic doormat Boner turns out to be a Repub company man through and through, even when the firm of Repub & Sons has been bought-out by yapping lunatics, imbeciles and zealots.
Booman has been explaining the unprecedented weakness of this fool for quite some time. The problem as always is that the corporate media cannot report on Boner’s Weakness because it’s a negative opinion about a Repub, and not a “fact”, hence a verboten topic. So we continue with the public charade that there is a functioning government in this country, despite all evidence to the contrary.
The question is, when does the charade get noticed? When does Toto pull back Wizrd’s curtain? If the extremist Repubs of Boner’s House can’t enact the far-right lunatic measures they desire, they won’t do anything. They will only challenge the last congress for the title of Greatest Do-Nothing (Repub) Congress in history. Will the corporate media ever be permitted to report on the fact that no meaningful legislation can now be passed under any circumstances, and who might be responsible for that? And will it matter if they did, given the Great Repub Gerrymander of 2010?
Anyway, pass the vodka, Boner. To “conservatism”! Prost! At least you can be dead drunk in your office by 3 pm….most others aren’t so lucky!
The question is, when does the charade get noticed? When does Toto pull back Wizrd’s curtain?
November 2014 is the next opportunity.
The subject of power in a legislature interests me. Every member is formally equal, and the Speaker is only an elected first among equals. Using what power the Speaker has must be less than obvious.
Nancy Hulksmash Pelosi didn’t have to listen to a bunch of backbench jerks
trying totelling her what to do.I find it helps to clarify my thinking to substitute “pathway to citizenship” wherever I see “immigration reform.” I think one component of the Republican strategy (such as it is) is to obfuscate what the real issue is. If they pretend the pathway to citizenship isn’t the only thing that really matters, then they might be hoping they can pass something that doesn’t include a pathway to citizenship and call it “immigration reform.”
Ah, cheer up. We got a 50/50 chance of losing the Senate. I’m sure McConnell will be more than happy to take the lead from Boehner.
At this point, we had similar or worse chances of losing the Senate in the past two election cycles.
Will this be the year the Republican primary electorate stops leaving treats in the Democrats’ Christmas stockings? I don’t think it will be.