Not since Rick Tyler’s epic 2011 press release for Newt Gingrich’s then-floundering campaign has Washington seen anything like John Boehner’s statement today announcing he would not invoke the so-called Hastert Rule to keep House Democrats from passing the Senate’s fiscal deal. I’m going to post the whole thing here because every line is a howler:
The House has fought with everything it has to convince the president of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at addressing our country’s debt and providing fairness for the American people under ObamaCare. That fight will continue. But blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us. In addition to the risk of default, doing so would open the door for the Democratic majority in Washington to raise taxes again on the American people and undo the spending caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act without replacing them with better spending cuts. With our nation’s economy still struggling under years of the president’s policies, raising taxes is not a viable option. Our drive to stop the train wreck that is the president’s health care law will continue. We will rely on aggressive oversight that highlights the law’s massive flaws and smart, targeted strikes that split the legislative coalition the president has relied upon to force his health care law on the American people.
Letting Democrats pass a bill to stop tax increases? “Smart, targeted strikes” on the coalition that Obama has used to “force” his health care law onto America? I do believe whoever wrote this hysterical and defensive rant made a major tactical error in evoking the image of a “train wreck.”
Where’s John Lithgow when you need him?
[The Video has been moved to after the jump so it won’t start every time you refresh your page. — Mod]
