If the House Republican caucus had more Steve LaTourettes, we might have a functioning government, but Steve LaTourette can still bite me. I understand his impulse to defend his good friend John Boehner, and I even understand and sympathize with part of his argument. But he has no right to blame the Democrats in the House for failing to show leadership or to govern effectively. John Boehner may be the leader of the Republican caucus, but he is, more importantly, the Speaker of the entire House. If he cannot govern effectively or ethically as the leader of his caucus, he needs to stop trying. He can resign. Or, he can do what he considers responsible under the circumstances, which is no doubt to go to the Democrats and make them part of his majority coalition.
Following the Tea Party’s dictates has destroyed Boehner’s record for posterity. He is a ridiculous figure even when he is sober. If he wants to fix this, and he can, he can foreswear the Tea Party and start making deals with Pelosi, Hoyer, Reid, and the White House. He can pass immigration reform and a farm bill and a transportation bill and get tax and entitlement reform and a budget passed through regular order. He can do away with the debt ceiling idiocy forever. If he was willing to do this, not only would the Democrats protect his gavel, but they would make concessions to the 180 so-called reasonable Republicans that Mr. LaTourette claims exist in the House.
It isn’t unprecedented at all. Speaker Tip O’Neill managed to work with Ronald Reagan with a coalition that depended on conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans. The end product wasn’t something that liberals and progressives were happy about, but the country functioned and paid its debts. And Reagan was at least as big of a threat to liberal interests as Obama is to conservative interests.
It’s simply not true that the Democrats are too doctrinaire to make concessions in the interest of governing the country. But as long as the Democrats are subject to extortion and are offered no reasonable concessions whatsoever, they have no partner to make concessions with.
It’s ridiculous to even bring the House Democrats into the discussion when the Republican Establishment wants immigration reform and can’t get it, wants a farm bill and can’t get it, wants a transportation bill and can’t get it, wants to stop alienating blacks and Latinos and Asians and Muslims and gays and women and can’t stop alienating them. They don’t want a government shutdown and they can’t avoid one. They don’t want to default on our debts but have no plan to avoid defaulting on our debts.
There is only one way out of this, and that is for John Boehner to decide that he is going to govern with the sane coalition he can have rather than the one he might wish to have.
He needs to give Steny Hoyer a call, for the good of the country.
Sage advice.
Too bad it will never happen. The only question is how much destruction there will be before there is an opportunity to flush this huge pile of shit down the electoral drain. With about 20-25% of the country already beyond, or on the verge of being totally unhinged, I would expect to see actual violence directed at members of Congress if Boehner did anything like you recommend.
He’s not following my advice.
He can’t follow your advice. Not if he wants to remain in elected office. The collective outrage of the wingnut whirlitzer would bring down the electoral apocalypse upon his tear-streaked little head.
An honorable man would do the right thing and let the Speakership go. How about a campaign for everybody to send Boehner a copy of Profiles in Courage?
You post this …
He can pass immigration reform and a farm bill and a transportation bill and get tax and entitlement reform and a budget passed through regular order.
then a few paragraphs later …
And Reagan was at least as big of a threat to liberal interests as Obama is to conservative interests.
He is? And what, exactly, are liberals going to get out of tax and “entitlement” reform? Obama is only a threat to conservative interests in their nutty, not reality-based dreams
Sigh.
The conservatives know that demographics are working against them. They also know that having tens of millions of people getting subsidies from the government to pay for their health insurance is going to create millions of voters who will be inclined to vote against conservatives who are not so-inclined today.
ObamaCare is a ginormous threat to conservatives and they know it.
It will change how the public feels about the federal government in a way that is similar to how Social Security changed the public’s opinions.
Obama is a mortal threat to conservatism in exactly the same way that Reagan was a mortal threat to the New Deal and the middle class.
But we still worked with Reagan because he won his elections in a convincing manner and we believed that it was our responsibility to listen to the voters.
You’re misreading Boo’s style. “At least as big a threat” means Reagan threatened to destroy the social compact; while Obama doesn’t much threaten what conservatives say they believe, but he does threaten their electoral prospects. Does not mean Reagan threat was only a little bit worse if at all.
And this post is why I’m worried. I can’t guarantee the WH won’t trade away what he wants (entitlement reform) for a functioning government. I’d rather burn it down than give these fuckers an inch on “entitlements.”
then you’re just as bad as they are, because burning it down is going to hurt millions of people
So is giving in to their economic terrorism which will only encourage them to go for more. People already got hurt last time with this sequester. Obama admits he made a mistake before. Let’s see if he doesn’t make the same mistake again.
I’m with you seabe and I’m sure millions of others over age 66 are also. It’s non-negotiable. It’s more than a “red line”. It’s the Third Rail.
Have their legislative election prospects suffered at all yet?
Boehner can bring some bills up against the preferences of the House caucus because Pelosi can keep him in the speaker’s chair. But he can’t forge a coalition with mostly Democrats because any Republican who joined him would be a huge target for primary challenges. Pelosi can’t protect Republican Representatives from their own districts. And since there are almost no Blue Dogs left (effectively about 8, I think) there aren’t enough Conservadems for a center-right coalition leaving out most Democrats.
So basically Boehner is in an insoluble pickle for being an effective House Speaker. There’s no working coalition he can form other than his current one – which can’t do anything because it needs Tea Party loons. He can, if he wants, pass essential bills like CRs and debt limits but that’s all he can do, period.
I wouldn’t call Boehner an incompetent speaker because he was spectacularly successful in 2011-2012. With only the House, he changed the budget more than Obama did in 2009-2010 with the trifecta. Sure his changes were evil, but he was very effective. It’s only now, with a totally impossible situation, that he can’t get anything done.
There is safety in numbers. They ought to figure that out.
No Blue Dogs left? I think there are only Blue Dogs left.