Hey John Boehner. How’s your day going? Not so great? Oh, really? Mine isn’t so great either. Now that I think of it, there are a lot of people across the country who aren’t having the best week like I don’t know, the government workers who aren’t getting paid, the retirees who are terrified their social security checks aren’t going out next week, the mothers who don’t have formula for their babies. But I get it, this is a tough time for you.
Now John, I’ve heard this line from you before about Ted Cruz and Justin Amash and the Tea Party Caucus and how your hands are tied. No one envies your position but it’s time as your people like to say to take a little personal responsibility. After all, you used the Tea Partiers to win the speakership, you enabled them, gave them power, told them their cause was just, noble, patriotic. What did you expect? They are behaving in exactly the renegade and destructive way that they promised voters they would. You can’t be surprised. They were promised a pound of flesh and now they’ve come for it. But really that’s all water under the bridge John. Let’s deal with the present.
You could have passed a clean continuing resolution at sequester levels, a major win for Republicans, but you didn’t want to upset the tea partiers. They wanted their government shutdown and so you gave it to them. You did that John. Thinking I suppose that maybe once they saw the GOP numbers tank and felt the wrath of constituents they would come to their senses and you could ride in saving both your caucus and the country from the Tea Partiers you enabled. Did you really think that would work? You are dealing with zealots… kamikazes who see plunging poll numbers as proof of their purity and a sign that the hour of their political martyrdom is close at hand. They want the confrontation. They want to go out in a blaze of glory. And they are NEVER going to love you John.
So now the President and the Senate have agreed on a deal. It’s not a great deal for the country, but it at least averts the current crisis. And once again, it all comes down to you. You John. Not the tea party. Not Ted Cruz. You. Just like it always has. You wanted power and boy do you have it. You could end this crisis today, just as you could have ended it from the beginning, just as you could have averted it before it started. Some say that you are terrified of losing your speakership after all, you only won the gavel this time by 6 votes. Well, you need to think long and hard about what you are doing to the country in order to keep your grip on a gavel that has brought you attention, sure, but much more misery. Let alone what it’s doing to the country.
This is your moment John. It’s time to decide who you want to be when you grow up. Will you choose to be a great man? You have that chance. Or will you choose to be the pawn of the tea party destroying the country that you love so deeply it makes you weep. You wanted the power. You won the power. Now figure out what you want to do with it.
And remember, there’s no crying in politics, right?
Krystal Ball