Hold the Mayo

September 03, 2011

Boehner Blows it Again: UPDATED For the Congressional Holiday

The current Speaker of the House, John Boehner, seems to be fundamentally ill equipped for the game of political hardball. (Bear with me as I flog this metaphor to death)

When The One asked to be invited to speak to a joint session of congress on a schedule that precisely matched a long scheduled GOP presidential candidate debate, he was playing political hardball. But like every time The One has thrown out the first pitch it was mom jeans lame. What he offered to Boehner was the equivalent of batting practice fastball.

Boehner, as is his usual pattern, hit a single to left field. What he should have done was driven it deep into the centerfield bleachers.

Boehner rightly refused The One the Wednesday invite and instead offered him the the next night. It is telling that the White House is taking pains to make sure the speech does not conflict with the NFL season opener. Clearly they understand that in a ratings battle between The One giving another speech and a football game, The One loses.

So Boehner did manage to exact a toll on the White House, and given their reaction (actually multiple reactions until they got their story straight which is a pattern of this administration) you could say that Boehner made it to second when the throw from left field missed the cut-off man.

Boehner's play was more bush-league softball than good old fashioned political hardball.

What he should have done is offered The One the opportunity to speak before Congress on Tuesday. After all if the speech is so important that it must be given before Congress, wouldn't it be better to hear what The One has to say sooner rather than later? We've already waited while the President golfed on Martha's Vineyard. This is important stuff. Why should we wait any longer?

More than worrying about being proven less important to the American people than a football game, this would have put The One and his proposals on the record before the GOP debate. This would have allowed candidates to offer their take on the ideas the President put forth and to offer their alternatives. This would have given GOP voters a chance to compare candidates to the President on the biggest domestic issue we face.

It would have given the candidates an opportunity to shred the vacuous platitudes and recycled failed Keynesian socialist ideas The One is going to offer - because that is all he knows. For The One the only solution to the problems created by too much government, is more government.

Boehner blew it. He should be replaced by someone with the courage to swing for the fence once and a while.

UPDATE: With apologies to the Speaker. Congress is not in session on Tuesday as they don't return from their recess until Wednesday evening. Given that their Labor Day weekend is longer than our Labor Day weekend the Speaker did the best he could short of just saying no.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 08:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment

1 The only problem with that plan is that Congress isn't in Washington on Tuesday.

They are "scheduled" to return at 6:30 Wed evening. God knows why.

He should have just told him to put it on YouTube and post a link on the White House website.

Or actually why bother, the President will say that we need to spend more money (that we don't have) to stimulate the economy by doing shovel-ready construction jobs. He doesn't know what else to say.

Posted by: Zendo Deb at September 03, 2011 09:00 AM (a5pyX)

2 I just found that out. I didn't stop to think that their three day weekend is longer than out three day weekend.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at September 03, 2011 01:42 PM (KGD+C)

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