All you need to know about the failed speakership of John Boehner was exposed to the entire world by Boehner himself as he announced his resignation from
Congress. The what, the how, and the why of his failures were
succinctly explained when he said, “The first job of any Speaker is to
protect this institution that we all love.”Do what? Well, no wonder he was a disaster as speaker. He had no clue what the job description was. In just 15 words, everything about his disastrous reign was brought into laser-sharp focus. Never has someone so orange said so much with so few words and so many tears. When you're this out of touch and have abused this much power and wasted this many opportunities that have caused a nation great pain, there is no limit to the scorn you deserve.
And for the record, that "institution that we all love" comment may be the dumbest political statement since David Brooks proclaimed Barack Obama a great president on the strength of his pant crease. It's also a perfect bookend comment to some words he uttered through tears in November of 2010 as he was preparing to take the gavel without a clue what message the voters had just sent.
The salient point that Boehner made clear is that the country is here to serve the government. The important people are those in government. What else can his words possibly mean? When he said "the institution that we all love" – it's clear that we means the House of Cards Washington Cartel in the House. For damned sure, no one else has any love for that institution.
No one this side of Kevin Spacey's Frank Underwood character has shown so much disdain for constituents while playing the Potomac game.
Boehner also was admitting to not knowing what his constitutional duties are. The duty he saw as his first and most important duty – "to protect this institution" – is not even among his duties, let alone first.
In other words, for seven years we've had a president who despises the Constitution – and held in check (theoretically) only by a House speaker for five years who doesn't understand what that document demands of him. Gee, what could possibly go wrong with that?
And there's no reason to doubt that Boehner sincerely thinks that protecting the institution was his "first duty." On the night it became evident he was going to have the speakership – election night 2010 – he gave a victory speech that was a harbinger of things to come under his leadership. To be clear, no conservative expected great things from Boehner, but he has managed to fall far below even our lowest expectations.
It wasn't the tears per se, even though they are what everyone remembers. It was what was missing from that speech that was most foretelling. To be precise, Boehner's comments made two related notions painfully clear. First is that the speaker in waiting had absolutely no idea what had transpired across the country to give his party majority power. It was if he had been off campaigning on another planet – far, far away from a place known as the real world.
This, in fact, is more or less true. Washington, where Boehner has spent most of the last 23 years, is an isolated planet of about eight counties with no resemblance to a nation subjected to the whims of those inside. There was a big message sent by the voters in 2010, and Boehner's brain apparently filed it under spam. This was true of most or all of the Republican establishment. They had no idea what was driving the mood of the public. And they haven't figured it out. Until now, perhaps. Perhaps.
No comments:
Post a Comment