So Obama has been visiting the wingnuts in the GOP, trying to find common ground, and this is the thanks he gets from Orange Julius Caesar:
I know my partner is negotiating in good faith when he takes to the pages of the Kaplan Test Prep Daily to crap all over me.
aimai
Christ what an asshole.
Keith
Was it months or was it years of “If only Obama would invite us over for lunch”?
taylormattd
Who cares what Boehnor’s public reaction is?
I realize that all of the Townhouse List emails you get from Matt Stoller, Jane Hamsher, and Joan McCarter demand that Obama scream redfaced at Boehnor, while knifing him to death followed by spitting on his corpse.
But those people are always wrong.
PeakVT
Oh, look, the goalposts are being moved again.
ETA: A federal budget proposal for small-s serious people is now ready to be ignored by the media.
ranchandsyrup
Emoprogs and conservatives DEMAND their unicorn.
Baud
At this point, Boehner is simply the drunken troll of U.S. politics.
Mark S.
Real leadership is capitulating to every demand of the other side. And then resigning.
gogol's wife
I’m so depressed by local politics in my dumb little town that I can’t get excited about national things this week. The world is full of really stupid and really evil people, isn’t it?
Neil
Dear speaker boehner,
Could you pleas point to where in the constitution the president is granted the power of the purse or alternatively the pat where it spells out that the president needs to tell you how you should do your job for you to do it? Alternatively, we’re you aware that “speaker of the house” as a job entails more than just speaking?
Love forever,
Your best friend,
Neil
Baud
@PeakVT:
Apparently, ignored by the blogs also. I’ve seen very little discussion about either the House or Senate proposals, even though they seem to be pretty good.
danimal
One by one, reasonable people who consider themselves conservative, read these pronouncements and let their GOP membership lapse.
For every new Limbaugh listener, there is a suburban housewife and a small business owner freaked out over the manipulations and game-playing of the national GOP leadership. Thus the GOP death spiral continues right in front of our eyes. Keep up the great leadership, Orange John.
Ash Can
Offhand, I can see two things happening here:
1) Boehner told Obama ahead of time that he was going to run an op-ed in the WaPo for purposes of throwing a bone to/putting on a good face for the nihilists in his party, in order to try to cajole even a few of them to get on board with any deal whatsoever
OR
2) Boehner is being a complete asshole, and he (and/or the Republicans pulling his strings) thinks he can get away with it.
Now, I can see Boehner (and Obama) being enough of a politician to make scenario #1 plausible. However, I also see Boehner being dumb enough to make scenario #2 plausible as well. The reaction of the WH to this op-ed (or the ramifications thereof, if the reaction is kept strictly private) will indicate which scenario was the one that actually played out.
Trollhattan
@Baud:
He and Nooners should open a theme bar and restaurant–“Drunky and McSwiller’s Eeyore Room and Hot Wings House of Christian Rock.”
gogol's wife
@efgoldman:
Yeah, that’s Count Floyd-level scary.
Jamey
Not to be a pedant, but Caesar was murdered. Boner could be Orange Brutus, but that lacks a certain poetic je ne sais quoi.
Trollhattan
@Ash Can:
Good cop/drunk cop? Hard to pull my brain around the notion, but they did play golf that one time.
BGinCHI
@Trollhattan: Try our Go Fuck Yourself Burger with a side of I’m Out of My mind!
SFAW
“You want leadership, O.J.C.? OK, here it is: I have just directed Attorney General Holder to name a Special Prosecutor to determine whether the Republican Leaders in the US Senate and House of Representatives have committed TREASON against the United States of America. There have been reports that their behavior – in effectively shutting down numerous functional aspects of government, for no other reason than to prevent a black President from implementing the policies voted for by an overwhelming majority of the electorate – have given ‘aid and comfort to the enemies’ of our country. I have heard rumors that Attorney General Holder is considering naming Elliot Spitzer as Special Prosecutor.
“OK, Johnny-boy, how’s that for leading? Don’t like it? TFB. Now, get outta my face, jerkoff.”
legion
Boehner has no idea what “leadership” looks like. this should surprise no one.
SFAW
@Jamey:
It’s “Word Association Football,” not intended to be a factual statement.
Redshift
It’s right in front of you, you asshole. I’m not surprised you don’t recognize it, since you think being “leader” of the House means bitching in print about how other people aren’t doing your job for you.
SFAW
@Jamey:
It’s “Word Association Football,” not intended to be a factual statement.
cmorenc
The “leadership” from Obama that Boehner thinks is missing is agreement to capitulation to GOP demands for: a) not a dime more in revenue; b) heavy slashing to all social safety net programs; c) Obama take the initiative to make a detailed push for cuts to Social Security and medicare, enough so that he owns the cuts politically rather than the GOP. (See: 2012 GOP campaign meme: Obama “cut” 700 billion from medicare, and you have the idea where this would be going).
Ash Can
@efgoldman: Actually, now that I’ve spotted this just now (h/t LGF), I’m more inclined to vote for #1: Boehner disappoints the crazies, won’t put defunding of the ACA in the budget bill.
MattF
Of course, ‘leadership’, in this case, means ‘doing what I tell him to do.’
kc
Man, I’m sick of these whiny GOP bitches.
Zifnab
That’s desperation you’re smelling. Boehner’s getting pushed up against a wall, and he’s flailing.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
I light a candle each night, hoping for something like that to happen.
Hoodie
Boehner flailing to try to cover his weakness. He can’t control his caucus or, more generally, the message coming from the party as a whole. He didn’t want sequester and lost. Ryan is stealing his thunder, and he’s the fucking Speaker. That would have never happened to Tip, and Nancy would have had Ryan’s balls in a vise.
Mnemosyne
Funny how the self-proclaimed more-progressive-than-thou crowd always manages to spout the exact same talking points as the Congressional obstructionists. I think Boehner lifted this headline from Ted & Hellen.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@efgoldman:
This is the rebuild.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, I find it strangely amusing that the Speaker of the House needs leadership from the president to figure out how to do his own job. Johnny, if being Speaker is just too hard for you to manage, then resign and let the House elect someone who can do the damn job.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Spitzer will look into after he gets done with his first task.
Yeah, I know … fixing FYWP is less likely than Turtle, OJC, ZEGS, et al. being tried for Treason.
Maude
Boehner has been saying this since January. He needs a new song.
sylvan
If there’s anyone knows about leadership, it’s the weekly random Tea Party mook who is not John Boehner.
Baud
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Win!
ranchandsyrup
@danimal: I sincerely hope that what you say is correct. But what I observe from embarrassed repubs is that they try to have it both ways. They disavow the current makeup of the GOP leadership but support their positions and tactics. The only explanation one gets is “I’m not a republican, I’m a conservative/moderate/fiscal conservative but socially liberal”. So they just rebrand around it.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Mnemosyne: please don’t mention that shit stain, he might make an appearance.
Baud
@Mnemosyne:
I think ODS is real. I think “I blame Obama” is real. I’m constantly reminded of this dialog from Last King of Scotland:
kindness
It’s so obvious Republicans are doing everything they can to get Democrats to name the cuts Republicans demand so that Republicans can then blame Democrats for them.
The MSM allows this to go on but they are in the tank. Why more folks aren’t pointing this out is something I can’t figure.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
Be careful what you wish for. You might get Speaker Jeb Hensarling, or worse, Speaker Eric Cantor.
SFAW
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!
demz taters
@PeakVT: When the Village starts creaming itself over the “Raul Grijavla budget” then I’ll take that liberal media crap seriously.
themann1086
Props for the image name. I like playing Dogs in bars, although the other patrons tend to not appreciate it as much…
minutemaid
You know what’s really funny, bloggers like Wr0ng Aga1n Cole who think they know how to do the presidents job better than the president…because they read stuff on the innertubez.
raven
@The prophet Nostradumbass: I pied him three weeks ago and haven’t looked back.
Baud
@raven:
Hey Raven, did you hear about Gohmert’s comment today?
raven
@Baud: I was warmin up the bean soup and heard him talking about the Nam, off to the google.
Baud
@raven:
From Pierce:
raven
@Baud: He received his B.A. from Texas A&M University in 1975. At A&M, he was a brigade commander of the Corps of Cadets and class president. He later received his Juris Doctor from Baylor University in Waco in 1977 where he also served as class president. Gohmert served in the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, at Fort Benning, Georgia, from 1978 to 1982. The majority of his U.S. Army legal service was as a defense attorney.
UH-Huh, him and Lindsay.
raven
@Baud: We were winnin when I left! (:
raven
@Baud: And if you need confirmation just pop over to Pat Lang’s , he’ll tell you all about it.
Baud
@raven:
Is there an easy way to get to Lang’s place? Hopefully, he’s on the blogroll here.
;-)
raven
@Baud: Ding!
Sly
Shorter Every Republican: “Leadership” entails the President doing exactly what I want him to do, but without me asking him so that I can avoid any accountability from voters that will inevitably follow.
The Other Chuck
co-equal branches, you whiny orange bitch. Or are you admitting that you can’t lead and whining that someone else won’t do it for you?
Trollhattan
@Baud:
If only we’d had a president…a special kind of president…a president with a Secret Plan to Win the War…
It’s too bad we couldn’t have had one of those, then it would have been all, “Vietnam’s done, next?” [claps dust offa hands]
Baud
@Trollhattan:
Part of me wishes that “Nixon lost Vietnam” had become a thing.
Rock
What’s especially awesome is that the Republican definition of leadership is Obama doing what Republicans tell Obama to do.
Jeffery Bahr
Look, I’m a poet. Really. So I get concision. But 95% of the acronyms, abbreviations and code names used with such joyful abandon in BJ’s articles and comments are just leftwing Village-speak and inside baseball. One of the funniest and most brilliant bloggers working today finds it perfectly acceptable to refer to Scott Walker as “the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin.” Every single time.
So. It’s not necessary to refer to Matthews as Tweety or use IAMAT for “I am not a taxidermist” or use “blah” for “black” in every single instance. It’s just juvenile and detracts from what is otherwise often interesting commentary.
Sorry to be so far off-topic, but I had to choose *some* comment thread to weave this into.
dww44
All of you do know, of course, that the President NOT showing “leadership” is the current meme all over the conservative media. Like I get emails from my brother for several days now about Obama’s campaigning and not showing “leadership”.
Seriously, what in the heck do they really mean? Is this their version of word salad. Sounds good to the conservative ear, but has no real meaning or validity. Also, too, why don’t Boehner, McConnell and the rest show leadership themselves. As far as I can tell all they do is smear and lie Pshaw.., I’m ready for the President just to turn his back on them, for the Senate Dem leadership to discover some cojones and do something about GOP obstruction of nominees there,
Let’s got on with it and just focus on the November 2014 elections. The GOP needs to be kicked into oblivion.
Baud
@Jeffery Bahr:
FWIW, I think part of the problem is that (except for the election last year) there hasn’t been anything new to talk about for quite a while. Since the GOP won in 2010, the country has pretty much been in a holding pattern. So we just say the same thing over and over again in increasingly snarkier and more abbreviated form.
xian
@Maude: actually he has a cycle of knee-jerk responses suitable for all occasions.
Calouste
This is… weird. I can’t imagine the opposition leader in say the UK, or pretty much any other European country, asking the PM for leadership. Attacking him/her for not showing leadership, yes. But asking for leadership? No way. The attitude would be far more along the lines of “get the bum out of here I can do this better”.
xian
@Jeffery Bahr: you had to?
maybe we need a blogger ethics panel to figure out why informality, cursing, mockery, ad running jokes are popular at a blog called Balloon Juice.
xian
@kindness: maybe Obama should be accusing Boehner of failing to lead by not selling revenue-raisers to his caucus. “The speaker got his cuts….”
Baud
@Calouste:
If Boehner were a Democrat acting this way, he would have been laughed out of the capitol long ago. His very presence is a quintessential example of IOKIYAR.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud:
Only Democrats can lose countries. Rethuglicans never do. They just turn them into implacable enemies.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jeffery Bahr:
DIAF.
Baud
@Villago Delenda Est:
I know. Just like only Democrats can increase the deficit.
geg6
@Baud:
For me, it’s one of few outlets where I can let my freak flag fly with like-minded people who do the same.
Plus, I am pro-snark and pro-ridicule. If that makes me juvenile in some Internet-person-who-I-don’t-know-but-who-is-sounding-bit-sanctimonious’s eyes, so be it. It’s Balloon Juice, Jake.
Baud
@geg6:
This is the only blog I participate in regularly, and it’s because of the people here. That said, I do think we’ve been a little out of balance lately in terms of content, and I think part of that is because it seems like we’re stuck in a quagmire politically (which we are).
The most important thing for me is that we don’t get frustrated and give up, because the other side surely won’t.
ruemara
@Jeffery Bahr: I’m surprised that a poet would be so…persnickety with regards to the fluid use of modern language. You do formal verse, don’t you?
Eric U.
@Jeffery Bahr: I will stop using the things you mention as soon as I hear a republican use the term “democratic” instead of the idiotic affectation “democrat”
Now that NPR reporters are saying “democrat” when they mean “democratic” I may go back to calling republicans “republics”
As far as Boehner goes, where is this era’s Preston Brooks?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jeffery Bahr: There is a lexicon. It’s not like the blog is hiding the ball.
sylvan
@Jeffery Bahr:
That rhymes.
sylvan
@Jeffery Bahr:
Also this: Let’s trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle
.
dance around in your bones
Fuck that Boner, I mean, seriously, fuck him.
What happened to the “jobs, jobs, jobs” ? Screw that joker.
dance around in your bones
@Jeffery Bahr:
And you don’t know it?
That’s a huge part of the fun on BJ, the inside snarkitude. Check out the Lexicon.
the Conster
@dww44:
By leadership, Boehner means that Obama needs to make Republicans stop playing I know you are but what am I. Unfortunately for the country which they love like OJ loved Nicole, they can and will play that game until January 21, 2016, which by then will make it obvious to every sentient being on the planet that Obama is and has been the only mature stable grown up in Washington.
SFAW
@dance around in your bones:
Nipsey! Been missin’ you, man.
@the Conster:
1/21/2017.
Or are you predicting an impeachment of the
blahblack guy?SFAW
@the Conster:
What, did Pee-Wee Herman move to LA?
dance around in your bones
@SFAW:
Oh hell, I’m always around. Just don’t always have the time to comment. I’m kind of a BJ addict.
“Hello, I am dance around in your bones and I am an addict”.
“Hello, dance!”
SFAW
@dance around in your bones:
dance, I know you’re around, and I (almost) always read your stuff.
I was making a reference to Nipsey Russell, who passed on about eight years ago. I believe “Hey! I’m a poet, and I don’t even know it” was one of his frequent lines. But, I’m getting very forgetful, so it could have been someone else.
Sorry for being so obscure.
dance around in your bones
@SFAW:
That’s not obscure – we used to say it as kids whenever we made a rhyme – “Hey, I’m a poet and I didn’t know it!”
I have no idea where we got it from. Sorta vaguely remember Nipsey Russell :)
Omnes Omnibus
@dance around in your bones:@SFAW: There is an old piece of doggerel rhyme that goes as follows:
He’s a poet,
And doesn’t know it.
But his feet show it;
They’re Longfellows.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus:
And they stink like the Dickens.
kindness
@xian:
No, really in a just and honest negotiation, Republicans want cuts. They should have to provide the specifics of the cuts just as Democrats want increased revenue, the Democrats should have to provide the data on where to increase that revenue.
Republicans are playing backwards because highlighting their demand for cuts putting it on the Democrats as being responsible for nameing and owning those cuts is simply making it all a talking point. It works because our fucking moronic media allows and supports this brazen dishonesty. The media is complicit but it is the Republicans who aren’t serious.
Kathy in St. Louis
Jesus, these turds won’t be happy until Obama shows up at their homes and washes their cars, then drives the kids to soccer practice. Does the orange one even understand that HE is supposed to be a leader and meet the other leader that he just admitted has reached out, halfway? That, I would guess, is a bit esoteric for this yahoo.