John Boehner was re-elected Speaker of the House today but
his handling (really non-handling) of the Fiscal Cliff negotiations coupled
with his repeated failure to manage his caucus in the last Congress has made
him largely irrelevant when it comes to negotiating with Obama and the
Democrats. Senate minority leader Mitch
McConnell has signaled that he will be the Republican chief negotiator as we go
forward. McConnell will be making the deals
and has shown that he has the power to force any deal he reaches on a
sufficient number of Republicans in the House to pass the legislation. Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated that she, not
Boehner, is the true leader of the House.
McConnell will do the negotiating with the Democrats and Obama. Once the Senate passes bi-partisan
legislation, Pelosi will secure near-unanimous Democratic support in the House
and McConnell will assemble the necessary additional Republican House votes to
pass the legislation he negotiated.
Boehner will give in and bring
the legislation to the floor but other than that he will be irrelevant as will
the ultra-right T-Party Republican nuts.
That’s how legislation will move forward in the new Congress. As the song says, “Bye, bye Boehner/T-Party,
bye, bye.”
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