Speaker of Nothing, III

The House finally passed the two month payroll tax-cut extension, which is pretty good, in a "no more drama, for now" kind of way, but the thing that tickled me about all of this was the timeline. As if this morning, the House GOP leadership was still a "no" on agreeing with the Senate bill (after being a "yes" over the weekend.)  And then the funny thing happened--McConnell sandbagged Boehner by saying the House GOP should go along with it, and then President Obama followed up by saying they really should. So apparently, Speaker Boehner had to change his mind, because all guns were trained on him.

This reminded me for all the world of the silly corner Boehner was painted into over the debt ceiling raise five months ago. It's like he's not that good at being Speaker, but, on the other hand, I'm not sure anyone else would do much better given the composition of the House. I think he knows what he's supposed to do, he just can't get any cooperation from his own party.

I'd like to think this sort of dysfunction costs the GOP the House, because I really can't see them holding onto a majority, and things getting any better next term.