Eugene Robinson:Boehner’s pointless leadership
House Speaker John Boehner needs to decide whether he wants to be remembered as an effective leader or a befuddled hack. So far, Im afraid, its the latter.
Boehners performance last week was a series of comic pratfalls, culminating Friday in a stinging rebuke from the House Republicans he ostensibly leads. Boehner (R-Ohio) wasnt asking for much: three weeks of funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which was hours from shutting down. He came away, humiliated, with just seven days worth of operating money for the agency charged with keeping Americans safe from terrorist attacks.
By any standard, the whole situation is beyond ridiculous. The government of the worlds leading military and economic power cannot be funded on a week-to-week basis. Theres no earthly excuse for this sorry spectacle and no one to blame but Boehner.
As everyone knows, the speaker is being stymied by far-right conservatives who insist on using the Homeland Security funding measure as a vehicle to protest President Obamas executive actions on immigration. And as everyone except those far-right conservatives knows, this is a self-defeating exercise in utter futility. The Senate wont pass these immigration provisions. The president wont sign them into law. For the House conservatives, this is not a winnable fight.
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