Why doesn't Boehner just reach out to Democrats?

[Joe the Revelator]

He can pass a bill in the house with a little bit of compromise. Why doesn't he work on a real bipartisan bill and box out the tea party?

His own party acknowledges that the tea party dopes are off the script and unmanageable.he'll, even the republican corporate base is fed up with the tea party. If he just fucking reached out,swallowed his pride and got off his talking points he could save his speakership and his legacy. Not to mention the country.

All it takes is compromise and a united front against crazy people who shouldn't be within 100 miles of any legislative body.

Shit is getting real.

[muntrv]

1. Because Rush Limpballs and Clusterfox News won't let him.

[Joe the Revelator]

4. But why does he still care?

If he doesn't reach out, he's sunk anyway.

[valerief]

12. He may have a gun to his head. Literally. nt

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Unless Boehner is equally dead set at defaulting on Aug. 2

He's going to have to.....and will. :shrug:

[lapfog_1]

3. The establishment repukes are scared to death of the tea party.

They like their congress critter jobs and don't want to face a primary fight with a tea party candidate.

[Joe the Revelator]

6. I don't think the tea party still has the pull that the est. Republicans act like they do.

Not with real people and not with the corporations.

[lapfog_1]

9. Ask the "moderate" repuke who was popular with both

establishment repukes and many Dems in Maryland... until he faced the dumbf**k Christine O'Donnell in the primary there.

Who do you think bankrolls the tea party? Grassroots? nope.

[Joe the Revelator]

13. But those who front the tea party...the chamber of commerce etc....

Are turning against them.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. If he were intelligent and decent, he wouldn't be what he is today nt

[LonePirate]

7. For Boehner, passing a bill is less important than hurting Obama. He won't compromise with the Ds.

[Contrary1]

8. Their front is already "untied".

Sorry, couldn't resist. :evilgrin:

[cabot]

10. well, now you're just being silly!

boehner reaching out to democrats is the logical thing to do. since when are conservatives logical? ;)

[givemebackmycountry]

11. Hey look, I don't like the guy but you are trying to get him killed.

If he so much as thinks about working with the Democrats, they will run him out on a rail.
His party is fucking insane and he knows it.
He's in the passenger seat, and Toonces the Cat is driving the car.
He's fucked.

And to think they were screaming "Fire Pelosi!"

[Joe the Revelator]

15. The people want a deal, the sane folks in his party want a deal....

The rednecks and the insane are the only people left who are against it.

Look, I understand he'll never do it, but it just amazes me he'll throw away his speakership over these dopes in the tea party.

[winga222]

23. OMG, I'd forgotten about Toonces!

Thanks for the best laugh that I've had all day!

[mmonk]

14. His party views the other party as the opposition.

[Hugabear]

20. Correction - teabaggers view the other party as enemy combatants, traitors

I'm sure that some even feel that Democrats are the spawn of Satan, and that compromise with them is a sin.

[mmonk]

22. Of course.

If however our party had viewed the Republicans as the opposition back in 2008, there probably wouldn't be a tea party caucus bringing the country down.

[Scurrilous]

16. John Boehner's Astonishing Miscalculation

<snip>

"Speaker of the House John Boehner appears to have made an astonishing miscalculation in his legislative strategy, designing proposed legislation to be viable only in a 100% party-line vote, even though as many as 120 of his own members have vowed not to support raising the debt ceiling.

Speaker Boehner would need to round up only 21 Republican votes to pass a Democratic or bipartisan plan emerging from the Senate, were he able to rely on all of the Democratic members of the House. It would seem a more reasonable political calculation to work with the party that wants to make a deal than to struggle against all odds to win support from those who have vowed not to give it.

Democratic whip Steny Hoyer put it succinctly, quipping tonight that “The party of no is saying no to their own policy.” He added that the Republican policy of making radical demands in order to avoid default “is an immoral policy”. Hoyer said tonight “I’ve been in Congress 30 years, and I don’t know that I’ve been as concerned about the welfare of my country as I am tonight.”

Independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said tonight that “what is going on in the House right now is a disgrace and an outrage”. He asked how it could be that “the Congress is so far removed from what the American people want”, citing surveys that show people don’t want the deep cuts to entitlement programs now under consideration and that they do want taxes to rise for those earning more than $250,000 a year.

There is a subtler way in which Boehner’s miscalculation could also harm his party. As the pressure mounts to make a deal, it becomes clearer that everyone is waiting for Tea Party radicals in the Republican party to decide whether or not the nation should be plunged into economic calamity, in service of ideological policy preferences.

That will obviously reflect badly on the Tea Party members involved in the standoff, but it will also make it harder for Republicans more broadly to win in 2012. Boehner could have avoided this crisis for the nation, and for his party, by working across the aisle, by letting the radicals know, with the same firm language he has used this week to demand cooperation, that he will not be held hostage and they can choose to make themselves relevant or not.

Boehner could have shown himself to be a statesman by cobbling together a “coalition of the willing”, comprised of moderates in both parties. Such a move would have elevated him as leader of the entire House of Representatives, worthy of the third highest office in the Constitutional order.

Instead, Mr. Boehner’s astonishing miscalculation now appears to have the nation hurdling toward debt default, credit downgrade, forced recession, and massive job loss, and his party torn and divided, his speakership in question, and Republican electoral chances sliding, by the day."

http://www.casavaria.com/cafesentido/2011/07/28/8279/john-boehners-astonishing-miscalculation/

[Joe the Revelator]

18. Good article.

[Kaleva]

17. I think that's what's going to happen in the end.

The establishment Repubs can now see that the teabaggers will not budge and thus they may support a compromise acceptable to the House Dems.

[Johonny]

19. He will lose his speakership if he passes bill without his party support

the pressure from FOX, hate radio and the Cantor robots would force him out as a traitor. Or so he thinks. The debt ceiling vote is clearly showing the Republican leadership is broken and the solid Republican party is GONE.

[Joe the Revelator]

21. But it's not his party, it's 30 fringe members

[gulfbreeze]

24. Ditto!