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.
