I'm watching the DHS temporary funding vote in the House and at the moment — a very extended moment — it's failing, 204-222. Boehner's head-counting operation did its usual crackerjack job.
CNN's Dana Bash is reporting that the speaker has no Plan B.
What else can one say? This is GOP governance for you: inept, fractious, and harmful.
On the upside I salute House Democrats. They mainly held firm, only 12 Yeas in support of Boehner's governance in three-week tranches; 172 opposed (some voting is still in progress). This was precisely what they needed to do to further expose GOP as the party of perpetual anarchy.
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Of course it could be that Boehner knew he lacked the votes, but had to demonstrate the obvious to his moronic majority. Should he proceed to a full-funding vote, he'll finally be doing his job.
I would say you are suffering from representative democracy. It looks to me like the elected representatives on the Republican side have about the same memory capacity of the people who elected them. And that is pretty representative. Their long term memories of how the last shutdown played out are lost while their short term memories of their recent electoral victories remain intact. And Boehner, who is doubtless jealous of McConnell's affliction, remaining Senate Democrats, wants everyone to know he has a far worse problem, a large Republican House majority.
I suspect you are right about Boehner's strategy. He needs his boys and girls to beat their heads against the wall weekly for about three weeks. Might take four, you can never tell. This morning I watched many pundits remark, as we all have, that the Republicans were not punished electorally for their previous shutdown. Yet not a single one made the logical leap to concluding the Democrats won't be either. Certainly not by 2016 which means they have nothing to lose. Nor does the president.
The same pundits hashed over whether Boehner's speakership is at risk. Maybe it is. But if it is then only the Democrats can benefit from whatever nitwit takes his place. Presuming, of course, that no one but a nitwit wants that job. That hypothetical nitwit can only be someone who wants to continue the Republican policy of not governing by catering to the fringe. And I'll bet Mitch is looking forward to that happy situation. You know what they say..better the asshole you know.
So the Democrats run out the legislative clock while the Republicans lurch from clusterfuck to fiasco trying to convince everyone that what they believe is true; good governance consists of willful incompetence. And that is one hell of an electoral platform.
Posted by: Peter G | February 28, 2015 at 08:43 AM