John Boehner: A pathetic profile in Jell-O

[DonViejo]

The House speaker may get credit if he finally defers to the Senate to end this crisis. But he doesn’t deserve it

BY JOAN WALSH

It’s an insult to all Americans’ intelligence and good will if the debt ceiling and government shutdown crisis end the way so many pundits of average intelligence, myself included, said it had to: with House Speaker John Boehner turning to the real speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to get the job done.

I mean, what do most pundits know? It could have taken a different turn, right? Except we’ve seen this movie many times before: Whether it’s keeping open the government when Boehner first took his job in 2011, or the August 2011 debt-ceiling deal, or the fiscal cliff deal last January, or Hurricane Sandy aid, or the farm bill, or… well, it’s been clear for a while that the only way Boehner can pass legislation that will pass the Democrat-controlled Senate (numerically controlled; the gateway to legislation can be blocked by the GOP minority) is by turning to Pelosi and asking her to corral her caucus and vote.

So this crisis may end the same way. It may: We started Tuesday believing a Senate deal was likely, and the House GOP rejected it. Then they rejected the deal Boehner proposed. Obviously, almost anything remains possible.

Let’s take in what occurred. On Monday night House Speaker Ted Cruz gathered the House Tea Party caucus secretly, I mean in public, at a Capitol Hill hot spot, Tortilla Coast, after news broke that Senate Republicans and Democrats were close to a deal. In the morning, Boehner tried to put together multiple deals, and they all fell apart. Heritage Action, which was for an end to the debt ceiling crisis before it was against it, said it would score any vote for the amorphous Boehner deal against any House GOP member.

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http://www.salon.com/2013/10/16/john_boehner_a_shameful_profile_in_jello/

[Blue Owl]

1. I think it goes without saying what flavor the jello is.

n/t

[savalez]

2. In a nutshell.

[AlinPA]

3. IMO, he will not allow a vote on the Seanate agreement. He is "all in" with the teabagger agenda.

[lame54]

4. I Think You Mean Jell-O Shots