BOEHNER CLEARLY DIDN’T THINK THROUGH HIS DOMA RESPONSE…. The Obama administration announced this afternoon that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, having concluded that the law is unconstitutional.
The response from the nation’s most powerful Republican was priceless.
Michael Steel, a spokesman for [House Speaker John] Boehner, said in an e-mail he questions why Obama “thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation” when “most Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending.”
Just at face value, this response is almost laughably weak. There’s ongoing litigation, and the Justice Department had to decide how best to proceed. So, it did. Besides, waiting for “the appropriate time” to take a side on a “controversial issue,” generally means indefinite paralysis.
But the larger problem here is with Boehner’s office lacking any and all self-awareness. This Speaker, after all, leads a House Republican caucus that has spent its first seven weeks tackling multiple abortion bills, health care, private-school vouchers, Planned Parenthood, a resolution to promote the phrase “In God We Trust,” and even a measure tackling marriage rights in the District of Columbia.
Boehner’s office questions why the White House “thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation”? Has his spokesperson been conscious for the last two months?
