John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House, has announced that he is resigning. He will remain in position for 1 month, long enough to cave in to Obama's budget demands on Planned Parenthood. Yes, with nothing to lose, Boehner is almost certainly going to leave office in much the same way he served, spinelessly.
When Boehner first became Speaker in 2010, I was optimistic that the Republicans might push back against the leftism of the president. Time and again, he demonstrated an unwillingness to fight for Republican principles, or any principles. Now and again, he would talk a good game but he never enacted it. No, for four years, all I heard from him was that he could not stop the president's agenda unless Republicans won the Senate. Then came the 2014 election in which the Republicans crushed the Democrats, acquiring the Senate. Finally, the Republicans will stand against the leftism of the president. No, instead they passed a budget that would constrain the Power of the Purse for the incoming majority. They didn't want to risk a shutdown so soon after such landslide election. Um, why do you think the voters chose you, the opposition party, if not to oppose?
When the Republicans won their sweeping victory in the 2014 election, I was sadly correct in my prediction of the difference it would make: none. The Republicans have failed their voters to such a degree that the voters will follow anyone who seems to have a spine. Donald Trump has a spine. Four years of Boehner's feckless leadership has brought the Republican party to this sad state. Boehner has secured for himself a failed Speakership, an example of what not to do for future Speakers.
The current expectation is for the Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, to be the next speaker. If he is, the Republicans will demonstrate that they haven't learned their lesson. Why have one milquetoast resign to be replaced by another. That may be unfair to McCarthy but I had no idea who he was until today. That he has been the majority leader for this disaster of a Congress is not a good sign.
Now if only Mitch McConnell would resign from the Senate...
Now if only Mitch McConnell would resign from the Senate...
1 comment:
Found this great quote from Ted Cruz regarding the Republican leadership in Congress:
“From a Democrat’s perspective, why would you let an appropriations bill pass if you can just wait until the end of the fiscal year, come right up to the edge of the cliff, and know Republican leadership will surrender? You don’t even have to guess on it. They promised you from the outset.”
Exactly my point since the Republicans took the House in 2010.
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