B-I-N-G-O, David Kurtz calls the Boehnner Cliff Fiasco Just Right

[cthulu2016]

The likely truth is that John Boehner never had the votes to cut a deal with President Obama. Any deal. Not a grand bargain of deficit reduction. Not a piecemeal deal that might have lessened the blow of all the Bush tax cuts expiring on Jan. 1. Nothing.

If that’s true, as I strongly suspect it is, then, yes, the last six weeks since the election have been a tour de force of kabuki theater. His Plan B was probably, in that scenario, his last ditch effort to escape this fiasco without having to admit that he never had the votes. Now that has failed, too, after a desperate 11th hour attempt to cajole, whip and bludgeon his Republican Members into voting for it.

It is easy to overreact to these things in the moment, to overread them. But Speaker Boehner just put it all on the line. The entire nation was watching, and he was exposed. He knows it. His conference knows it. Anyone left in Washington who had doubts about this speaker’s clout now knows it, too. In a parliamentary system, he would resign and his party would elect a new leader. We don’t do it that way here … usually. But it’s hard to see how Speaker Boehner continues from here — or why he would want to.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/12/does_a_speaker_survive_this.php?ref=fpblg

[cthulu2016]

1. .

[DemoTex]

2. Washington weather: Drunk Front moving in tonight

Boehner loses to Cantor coup. It's gonna get damn drunk in DC tonight.

[underpants]

3. The far RW hates Cantor too. I don't see him surviving if Boehner doesn't

Paul Ryan?

[DemoTex]

4. Oh my eyes!

I think you nailed it. That gets their little boy in the line-of-succession for POTUS.

[sheshe2]

5. Oh I shudder when I hear the little Munsters name!

[madokie]

6. Now that is scary

but then again maybe not as all boy munster has is his abs

[1StrongBlackMan]

8. With respest to what

boehner's next move should be, a guy on NPR offered boehner the sage advice of "The great Philosophy, Bluto Blutarsky (of Animal House fame) ... 'Drink, drink heavily!'."

[Eddie Haskell]

20. His next move may be to switch parties.

[theKed]

21. Nobody likes

a drunken party crasher!

[randome]

28. I think we may start to see some GOP defections soon.

Boehner could very well be one.

[LiberalFighter]

23. He doesn't already do that?

[Texin]

7. Nah. The teabaggers won't go with Ryan. He's a loser. The election proved that.

Cantor has really been the face of the extreme (maybe not the most extreme) of the RWers for the past two years. I've always gotten the sense that he's been working subversively behind the scenes to undermine any moderate agenda or consensus-building that Boehner has tried to achieve. His cat that ate the canary shit-eating grin last evening was pretty telling IMO. I'll be shocked as hell if Boehner doesn't return after the holidays and announce that he's not going to mount a campaign to retain the Speakership. I'll be even more shocked if the RWers don't mount an epic pitched battle to unseat him if he doesn't. It's pretty apparent that he's lost control and the confidence of his caucus.

[Plucketeer]

10. I figured I wouldn't be alone in that observation

That devlish smirk on Cantors face as he strode quickly down that corridor was unbridled giddiness seeping thru to his face muscles. It was evidence of the elation he had bubbling in his head over having slain the speaker without ever giving evidence of his hopes of doing so. Think about it....... given what had JUST happened, what other reason would he have to smile???

[ewagner]

22. Agree with you and Texan

that-$hit-eating grin said it all...he's a swarmy little SOB!

[Kyad06]

25. Yeah Cantor is his Brutus

Bitch face is just waiting to take over

[JDPriestly]

9. I hope the Republican Party stays in disarray until after the 2014 election if not forever.

We really don't need that short-sighted, stupid, ignorant bunch in Congress.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. Yeah, but then the centrist Republicans will switch to the Democratic party

and then the Democratic Party moves even more to the right.

[leftstreet]

12. The Dem party might be too far right for centrist Repubs n/t

[bigtree]

13. they can only move closer to the nutty center of their party

That should prove to be their absolute undoing. Only so many of them can keep their inner idiot at bay.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. Murkier and Murkier

It becomes very difficult to see how a budget will be passed even
in the new Congress.

Democrats will still need 17 or so GOP votes to pass anything, and
those 17 or so will have to have something to vote for it. Military
cuts, higher taxes on millionaires won't exactly float their boat.
They want entitlement cuts.

Or the Democrats could just cave to the majority, though I think
they have finally figured that one out.

I continue to think the Fiscal Cliff would be a good thing. Let's
see how that goes over, and maybe it will motivate.

We may experience gridlock for awhile, but we cannot continue
the absurdity where the House GOP dictates bills, the Senate
MINORITY dictates passage, and the President caves.

THAT is the tyranny of the minority. Anti-democracy.

Oh wait .... that's what the GOP believes in. Government
of the LEADERS, by the LEADERS, for the LEADERS.

Elitism, the same thing RUSH always blamed on Democrats.
Hypocrite.

[closeupready]

15. K&R

[alfredo]

16. Cantor is undermining Boehner because he wants to be speaker, or Plan B didn't generate enough

cash for Cantor's stock portfolio.

[marble falls]

17. Plan B was an effort not to lose his leadership position. I pray they hand it over to whoever is ...

the biggest teabilly in the room. Some who doesn't have a clue of how Congress can be worked.

[RickFromMN]

18. I don't see any legislation pass until 2015, when hopefully, voters vote the Republicans out.

Speaker Cantor will dig in his heals. He will block anything and everything.

I hope President Obama can do something when we go over the raising the debt cliff.

[greyghost]

19. Boner is a...

prime example why alcoholics should not be is any position of power.

[LiberalFighter]

24. Boehner's problem is that they are working under the Hasert rule

Don't pass anything they can't pass on their own. Maybe they might have gotten it passed with the help of Democrats but that would had been a risky move. It probably would undermine the strength of the Republicans by relying on their help.

[Kyad06]

26. Can you imagine how bad it will get....

If Bitch Face and Yurtle are the leaders of the Repukes ?

[MarianJack]

27. john boner =...

...weakest House Speaker EVER!

PEACE!