Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:42 pm
Speaker John Boehner has rendered himself impotent in his position by refusing to take a stand until the Tea Party pushes him over yet another cliff, at which point he folds like a coward, points his fingers at President Obama, and runs whimpering into the cover of night. That John Boehner is a fail is something both the left and right agree upon. They disagree only about the solution to this problem.
Boehner has made running away from his own bills and negotiations a trademark of his tenure as Speaker. He is best pictured pointing his finger at Obama as he high tails it away from his own bills and offers. When he wants something passed, he has to rely upon the last Speaker of the House, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi has kindly rolled up her sleeves and gone to work to whip up the votes for things that matter to this country, but she drew the line when Boehner refused to meet the President even halfway with his immigration bill.
Leader Pelosi’s office noted that running away from his bills and negotiations is par for the course for Boehner, and they offered up a handy round up of the fail:
CBS: John Boehner walks away from debt talks [7/22/11]
Roll Call: Boehner Delays Vote, Considers Changes to Debt Bill [7/28/11]
The Daily Kos: House leadership blocks vote on payroll tax cut extension [12/19/11]
Bloomberg: Former Highway Bill Foe Boehner Scavenging for U.S. House Votes [2/17/12]
POLITICO: Cliff chaos: Boehner pulls GOP bill [12/21/12]
The Houston Chronicle: Boehner blasted for pulling Sandy aid bill [1/2/13]
The Associated Press: House Republicans Pull Health Care Bill After Backlash [4/24/13]
The Washington Times: House rejection of farm bill sows bad seeds for Boehner [6/20/13]
MSNBC: Boehner pulls shutdown bill in major defeat [10/15/13]
The Guardian: Boehner backs down and drops Republican demands on debt ceiling [2/11/14]
USA Today: House GOP kills last hope for immigration bill [7/10/14]
The Washington Post: Revolt within GOP quashes border vote [7/31/14]
But the right is also not happy with the Speaker. In June, after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) stunning defeat at the hands of the Tea Party, a HuffPost/YouGov poll found ”only about a third of Republicans have a favorable view of Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).” Thirty-three percent of Republicans view Boehner favorably, while 41% view him unfavorably. (The poll was conducted June 11-13. )
At Breitbart, they hyperventilated that Boehner was surrendering to a “lawless” President with his border bill, fretting over possible amnesty. This is the same border bill that Pelosi knew Boehner could not get passed as Boehner made frantic motions of blaming Obama for what he had to know was imminent – the revolt of his own party and his inevitable failure to control them. Yesterday, before Boehner canceled his own vote due to the revolt of his party, Breitbart mocked the Speaker with a story about how Americans were burning down the phone lines over his bill. The image was a Tea Party protest urging the Speaker to “try growen (sic) a pair!!” Two blue balls dangle from the sign.
Had the Speaker taken the Tea Party’s advice, he would have saved himself the humiliation of defeat from both sides. He could have played the hero to at least one faction. As it is, Boehner is left chasing after scraps and begging the extremist faction of the Tea Party to let him get into bed with them. Today, he offered up 500,000 children as a sacrifice to the Tea Party in a desperate attempt to quiet their growing dissent. This is not the sign of a leader.
With all Americans, Boehner scored 20% favorable to 53% unfavorable. Nancy Pelosi scored the highest in that poll, with only 27% ranking her favorably — that’s what a fail this Congress is. The fail is contagious, as the American people are fed up with the Do-Nothings. Even Rasmussen agreed in June, finding Boehner to be the overall most unpopular leader in Congress. It looks like “try growen (sic) a pair!!” will be John Boehner’s legacy.
Image: Breitbart/Tea Party
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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