What do you think Boehner's motivations are with this?

It’s about time he showed some leadership instead of caving to every little right wingnut that throws a tantrum. He and the leadership kowtowed to the tea party back in October, and it has done immense damage to the GOP.

@zenvelo That’s exactly what I’m thinking. I think the guy got embarassed and Obama was calling them out about it left and right (no pun intended.) This does give me hope for my party though.

Ditto! Boehner finally realized that the line has to be drawn somewhere. The fanatics to his right are not going to be satisfied until none of us are able to recognize the country in which we live.

He has seen the writing on the wall and finally come to realize that his best, and probably only realistic, option is to try to regain the trust and backing of the mainstream party faithful because the far rightwing faction will gut him at the first opportunity.

Hold on, guys… the thing hasn’t been voted on yet. I foresee rocky days ahead.

At the end of the day, Boehner is a politician. His recent actions have alienated not just the swing-voters, but even many of the Moderate Conservatives. He wants to be re-elected at some point though, and if the public (even many Conservatives) are calling for an end to the insanity and to take the GOP back from the terrorists, the most electable thing Boehner could do is draw the line.

The Pope’s continued hammering against the Far Right probably also plays a small role. Many Americans may not care so much about turning other nations or non-Christian religions against the US, but when the Pope says you fucked up….

@jerv You mean the Person of the Year?! Yeah, he’s very popular and a LOT of Catholics are conservatives, obviously.

He must realize he’s in charge of a caucus full of stupids, sociopaths, and stupid sociopaths. It must be exasperating.

@bolwerk Really?! Generalizations are exasperating, seriously.

I do not know about his motivations. I do not even care. But I do wish he would do better. I suggest that he read a biography of Sam Rayburn and see what he can copy. Sam was one of the last great Speakers of the House.

I think that Boehner is tired of letting the tail wag the dog. a friend of mine from Ohio who used to be a member at askville told me that she knew someone who was a aid to Boehner in Washington and she said that the person described John Boehner a sad orange bag of dicks.

A sad orange bag of dicks. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that phrase before.

I think Boehner probably always wants to do the right thing. I also think he is woefully unequipped to know what the right thing is or to have the strength to do the right thing. He is a sad, weak man in a powerful position. It’s hurting his party and it’s hurting his country.

He’s probably trying to get moderate Republican brownie points.

a sad orange bag of dicks. I’m sending that to The Daily Show. It is golden.

@KNOWITALL: you can’t draw useful conclusions without generalizations. In any case, a Republikan politician that doesn’t fit at least one of those categories is an incredibly rare animal.

Sadly, @bolwerk is correct; most Republicans these days do fall into one of those categories. The only exceptions are the sheep that will follow whatever the idiots and sociopaths say out of a sense of party loyalty because they are too afraid to form their own party that is more inline with traditional Republican values.

@bolwerk @jerv That is completely untrue, but our parties are so incredibly different on approach it’s difficult.

Every time I talk to liberals here or in RL, a lot of our ideals are the same, but our way of getting there is very different. Right jerv?

Boehner’s saying (IMO) he’s done and the party is done with being held hostage by the TP or uber-conservatives, which is a good thing. If you believe Reps can’t recognize a good move like Obamacare (maybe), then try to be a little more openminded about good thing’s done by Reps. We’re all on the same team ultimately you know.

This is getting interesting.

@KNOWITALL I see the GOP as two different parties right now; one that I agree with often enough to consider myself an Independent (I’m more Conservative than you might think), and one that I feel should be either tried for treason and/or crimes against humanity solely to justify their removal not only from politics, but from society.

It’s one thing to have different ideas about what’s best for the nation and it’s people, but once you ignore indisputable history in favor of ideology to “justify” terrorist acts, then I consider you no better than Bin Laden, and will react just the same as I would to any other dangerous extremist.

Maybe Boehner has seen the light and grown a backbone, maybe it’s just a shrewd move for personal political gain, but either way, it’s nice to see someone with power within the GOP calling the rabid fuckers out.

Boner is still a lizard, and the party doesn’t stop being crypto-fascist because it says no to the teabaggers.