John Boehner is Just One Tent Away From a Full Blown Circus
What part of You Freekin’ Lost do Republicans not understand? The President’s plan won. The Republican plan lost.
I’m getting this second hand but someone told me that Grover Norquist was mumbling that John Boehner has a mandate because he was elected and the President needs to back down. The Democrats picked up 7 House seats this election. What does that say about Boehner’s leadership? It says he’s crappy. That’s what it says.
John Boehner does not have a loose screw – he’s missing the whole damn toolbox.
Let my people vote, John!
This emergency hissy fit was brought to you by the letters WT and F. Please return to your regular scheduled programming.
“the letters WT and F” ??? JJ, you are too much! Still laughing.
Thanks.
1Go past the deadline, the curve, the cliff, or whatever you want to call it. The new Congress after January 3rd, will make a deal we can live with and the Bush tax cuts will be gone.
2I’m going to adjust the tinfoil hat I have to don occasionally in Central Texas to keep the outhouse-rat-craziness from getting to me, and I’ll see if I can tune in a good conspiracy theory. What if John Boehner is so trembling, tearful, and pitifully scared spitless of Grover and the Tea Bag Goons that he and the Prez agreed to kick it into the Senate for a solution? Still hoping for some sanity.
3“We had an election Boehner was elected speaker. Now lame duck obama(sic) should get over it.” –Grover’s tweet
Read more at http://wonkette.com/494771/grover-norquist-drunk-tweeting-his-own-demise#hhzbU0zBPeCJMKIr.99
4When your poll numbers are lower than Richard Nixon’s during Watergate, all you can do is dither on blindly, because the truth would cause you to commit suicide. Come to think of it, this may be the political equivalent of that.
Actually, the redoubtable Nate Silver has some interesting thoughts about this:
“…individual members of Congress are responding fairly rationally to their incentives. Most members of the House now come from hyperpartisan districts where they face essentially no threat of losing their seat to the other party. Instead, primary challenges, especially for Republicans, may be the more serious risk.”
It is a good read: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/as-swing-districts-dwindle-can-a-divided-house-stand/#more-37996
Just as the King of Cheetos is afraid of losing the Speakers job his fellow Republicans are afraid of losing their jobs if they vote for this.
PS – If we Democrats (operators and customers of the Salon exempted), ever figure out that down ballot races (particularly those that determine redistricting) are every bit as important as Presidential races we could fix this thing.
5Deb, good article, and I heartily agree with your PS.
Even The Guardian, the leftest of Britain’s major newspapers, said this in today’s editorial:
The Republicans are not behaving as if they have lost an election. It is Mr Obama’s primary duty to remind them that they have.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/us-budget-crisis
6“This emergency hissy fit was brought to you by the letters WT and F.”
Woot!
7The Reps are imploding, slowly but surely.
8And let’s not forget that while they kept the House, they lost the popular vote for that chamber by 1.2 million votes nationally. Grover is panicking like a landed trout because, to mix my animal metaphors, he knows his goose is cooked.
9Is it just me or does it seem like we’ve been heading down this “Fiscal Cliff” in slo-mo for a long, long, long, long, long, time?
10Why the “Fiscal Cliff” Bores the Snot Out of Me
11http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/28-9
Boehner is a roadside attraction with delusions of circushood.
12Oh look. I found a picture of Boehner responding to the election:
13http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/slacktivist/files/2012/12/heffalump.jpeg
WT & F – yeah, perfect. My thoughts exactly when I read the Wonkette article yesterday. Grover is drunk-tweeting.
I believe there should be a breathlyzer test required before EVERY VOTE in Congress and a weekly blood test to find out who’s drunk and who is hopped up on drugs~
14@ Don A … love that picture! LOL
15@Don A and Marcia….. DITTO! Need the bumper sticker and the poster.
16The Repubs winning the House might give them a theoretical 1/3 mandate. But since House Dems won over one million more actual votes than Repubs, that mandate is based largely on bad districting.
These guys have imaginary mandates like young children have imaginary friends.
17I’ve been without the internet for almost a week. Been getting my news from the “teevee”. I got to the point, where, without knowing what the heck I was doing, I decided to hook up a PC my grandson built years ago, and no longer used….. and passed on to me. I have Windows, I have internet, and I can read the news. It is torture to have to listen to these people on television…. endlessly talk about “the fiscal cliff”….. and then say “we really know…. it’s not a cliff.” Well then W.T.F…… why do you call it that? I don’t know how long this will work for me. I may have to just leave it on…. night and day…. But I know it’s better than tv news.
18Boehner has been between the jaws of a slowly-tightening vise for two years now, since the Teahadist takeover of the House. He desperately wants to make a deal — it’s what the man does — but he simply has no sway over his own party members. And of course, Eric “Brutus” Cantor has been waiting very patiently for the right moment to give John of Orange the shiv.
Matt Taibbi’s profile of Boehner from two years ago is behind the paywall at Rolling Stone, but it’s definitely worth reading if you have access. Almost make you feel sorry for the man.
Almost.
19The fiscal curb Miemaw?? 😀
20While the American Taliban has control of the House, is it possible for democracy to work? It sure doesn’t look like it.
21I’m actually going to enjoy watching the Boner fail to rein in his caucus and watch the “fiscal cliff” come to pass. The Dems will make a huge show of passing a bill limiting taxes to those making under $250K–98% of us–and passing extended unemployment benefits (2 million people). You know, what the vast majority of us voted for. The Turtle can either filibuster it (Hah!) or the Boner will have to gather Dem House votes to pass it.
Either way, the Rethugs are soooooo screwed.
Pass the popcorn.
22JJ said “This emergency hissy fit was brought to you by the letters WT and F.”
LongRider immediately stole it. Hope you don’t mind!
23