Speaker Boehner appeared this morning on Fox News Sunday with host Chris Wallace. He was challenged about his judgment in inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without consulting or notifying the White House. What he said in response was amazing:
Wallace then pointed out that Boehner asked Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., not to tell the White House about the joint meeting with Netanyahu.
“Why would you do that?” Wallace asked.
“Because I wanted to make sure that there was no interference. There’s no secret here in Washington about the animosity that this White House has for Prime Minister Netanyahu. I frankly didn’t want that getting in the way, quashing what I thought was a real opportunity,” Boehner responded.
Wallace challenged Boehner, commenting that the invitation created controversy.
“Shouldn’t the relationship between the U.S. and Israel be outside of politics?” he asked.
“It’s an important message that the American people need to hear. I’m glad that he’s coming, and I’m looking forward to what he has to say,” Boehner responded.
This is just maladjusted behavior on so many levels. It’s like not telling your parents that you’re pregnant when you’re planning to have the baby. You know, unless you go into hiding, your parents are eventually going to figure out that you’re having a baby.
But maybe you didn’t want your parents to talk you out of it. Maybe you figured you would wait until it was too late to get an abortion and then just spring the news on them when there was nothing they could do about it. That’s approximately what Boehner was doing here.
He didn’t want the White House to “quash” Netanyahu’s speech, so he didn’t run the idea by them. But he doesn’t care what the White House has to say about the matter and he hasn’t rescinded his invitation, so he obviously didn’t have to worry about the White House quashing anything.
He’s having his baby.