Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Boehner, Boehner, Boehner

I remember once watching both the PBS Newshour and the Daily show back to back, and the Newshour had the more clever caption for their graphic of a particular story than the Daily Show. Ever since the Daily Show started, occasionally mainstream news shows will run something just a little funny (OK, maybe that started with Charles Kuralt)> Just this past Sunday, ABC's This Week (which I watched) had a video montage of Obama's Cleveland speech which consisted of showing us how many times Obama said Boehner. I believe it was eight, like something out of the Daily Show, Obama in rapid succession saying "Boehner"(snip)"Boehner"(snip) "Boehner"(snip) etc.

Apparently I should have been watching "Face the Nation", where Bob Schieffer had the man himself. Whether by Republican design or not, Boehner showed a rare flash of reasoned insight and declared himself in favor of the Obama tax plan, if that was his only alternative. He even apparently admitted that only 3% of small businesses yielded personal incomes of over $250,000.

Now I doubt many, if even any, other Republicans are going to take this position. So Boehner's position, even as House Minority Leader, amounts to essentially nothing in terms of votes or the real world. It could be a nice wedge for Republicans, though, if blogs and pundits around the country talk about it a lot. But since Boehner is in the House, even if he could get a lot of Republicans to vote with him for the Obama plan, the legislation would still face the Senate. Where they have yet to decide they have no alternative.

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