Another day closer to default and another day to watch the national embarrassment that is the House GOP caucus. While no one looks good in this mess, the debt debacle could claim its first political victim: John Boehner.
The failure of the House Republicans to agree to Boehner's plan doesn't bode well for his future according to Jay Newton Small at Time Magazine:
House Speaker John Boehner failed to muster enough GOP votes to pass his plan to raise the debt limit on Thursday night, throwing into question the fate of Boehner's proposal as well as that of his speakership. Republican leaders must now rewrite the legislation in order to attract more conservatives as they try to pass a revised version on Friday. But considerable damage has been done. Boehner's negotiating stance in the ongoing effort to trim deficits and raise the debt ceiling by next Tuesday's deadline is hobbled; any credibility he had in claiming that his restive members could get behind a consensus debt deal has vanished. The Speaker has gone lame. (emphasis added)Lame. Ouch, but true.
And, Boehner's got limited options:
But it's clear now that Speaker Boehner will need Democratic votes to get any compromise through the House. And that leaves the Republican leader with two options: abandon Tea Party freshmen and form a coalition between his most moderate members and 150+ Dems, or potentially allow the last best hope for a debt ceiling deal to fail in his chamber, with nothing but market panic left to make his members reconsider. Either would be a bruising choice for the embattled Speaker.If becoming Speaker made Boehner cry, what's he doing to do if he gets dumped? I don't think many of us will be shedding any tears for him.
Also, just learned that Obama will be making remarks about the debt debacle at 10:20 AM ET. We'll post a livestream.
