That's the sound of fear, or at the very least trepidation.
House Speaker John Boehner says President Barack Obama’s jobs proposals laid out in the Capitol Thursday night “merit consideration"...Mind you, some Republicans weren't even showing up to Obama's speech. The GOP was calling it a political ploy full of failed proposals. Now the Republican leader in the House suddenly says the President's proposals merit consideration. That's a shift. I don't think it's a sincere one, but what is sincere in politics anyway. What matters is actions. And at least for now, John Boehner is acting like someone who got a very scary private briefing about some troubling poll numbers.
Of course, Boehner is SOL once the crazy caucus hears what he said. The teabaggers did a lot of damage to Boehner and themselves during the debt ceiling debate. They got a lot of what they wanted, to be sure, but at what cost? The public is now onto them. And regardless of how far down they bring Obama in the polls, their numbers always end up being worse. At some point - oh, say, November of 2012 - that kind of self-inflicted damage is no longer sustainable.
