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defrogCasual political dithering by Team Def Chief Political Dithering Officer Lucky Bensonhurst
You know by now that John Boehner will be stepping down as House Speaker at the end of October.
I’ll leave most of the commentary to John Scalzi, who is not only pretty wise when it comes to armchair political analysis, but also happens to live in Boehner’s district, so he’s as qualified as anyone at Politico to assess the situation.
All I can add is that it seems fairly clear Boehner was inspired both by the Pope’s Congressional address, and by the latest attempts by the House Tea Party to shut down the govt over Planned Parenthood. The former probably inspired the timing, as the inside line for awhile now has been that Boehner is sick of the Tea Party’s crap. And certainly Boehner now feels free to finally say it out loud.
The big questions now, of course, are:
1. Who will replace him?
2. Will he/she be as nuts as Ted Cruz?
Because as much as liberals may consider Boehner to be a typical right-wing kook, he’s actually pretty reasonable compared to the Tea Party hardcore. We know this because pretty much no one in the Tea Party likes him. As far as they're concerned, he's so RINO he may as well marry Obama and be done with it.
It’s not yet clear who will get the job, although it’s not likely to be a Tea Partier if only because of the math. On the other hand, the best we can hope for is someone politically similar to Boehner, which means what we’ve been seeing in the House to date will be as good as it gets.
And of course, it’s an election year – and not just any election year, but a year where Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson are the current GOP frontrunners. If ever there was an opportunity for the Tea Party to yank the GOP out of the hands of the Establishment and haul it to the far right, this could be it.
Mind you, I don't really believe that's going to happen, if only because the GOP Establishment isn't going to just sit around and let it happen. But then if you'd told me six months ago that Trump would lead the polls for at least 25 weeks straight, I'd have laughed.
Fun times, eh Jim?
L. Bensonhurst
You know by now that John Boehner will be stepping down as House Speaker at the end of October.
I’ll leave most of the commentary to John Scalzi, who is not only pretty wise when it comes to armchair political analysis, but also happens to live in Boehner’s district, so he’s as qualified as anyone at Politico to assess the situation.
All I can add is that it seems fairly clear Boehner was inspired both by the Pope’s Congressional address, and by the latest attempts by the House Tea Party to shut down the govt over Planned Parenthood. The former probably inspired the timing, as the inside line for awhile now has been that Boehner is sick of the Tea Party’s crap. And certainly Boehner now feels free to finally say it out loud.
The big questions now, of course, are:
1. Who will replace him?
2. Will he/she be as nuts as Ted Cruz?
Because as much as liberals may consider Boehner to be a typical right-wing kook, he’s actually pretty reasonable compared to the Tea Party hardcore. We know this because pretty much no one in the Tea Party likes him. As far as they're concerned, he's so RINO he may as well marry Obama and be done with it.
It’s not yet clear who will get the job, although it’s not likely to be a Tea Partier if only because of the math. On the other hand, the best we can hope for is someone politically similar to Boehner, which means what we’ve been seeing in the House to date will be as good as it gets.
And of course, it’s an election year – and not just any election year, but a year where Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson are the current GOP frontrunners. If ever there was an opportunity for the Tea Party to yank the GOP out of the hands of the Establishment and haul it to the far right, this could be it.
Mind you, I don't really believe that's going to happen, if only because the GOP Establishment isn't going to just sit around and let it happen. But then if you'd told me six months ago that Trump would lead the polls for at least 25 weeks straight, I'd have laughed.
Fun times, eh Jim?
L. Bensonhurst
