Full disclosure: Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) is not my favorite
person.
I’ve been thinking about Boehner’s blockbuster announcement
last week that he will step down as Speaker of the House and resign his seat at
the end of October, in other words, more or less immediately.
An abrupt change like this—a necessarily speedy and
unavoidably messy change in a high-profile leadership position—is not good for
our political process, not good for our government and not good for our
country.
Some commentators have connected some of the obvious dots:
Boehner now has a personally fail-safe option to orchestrate a bi-partisan bill
to continue funding the government, without support from right-wing,
anti-government Republicans in the House who want to attach poison pills to such
a bill.
I’m willing to admit that Boehner is willing to accept
personal sacrifice to get this essentially reasonable bill to pass in a form
that President Obama will sign. I respect that motivation.
Yet, he knows and all of us know that this short-term bill
is a can that’s going to be kicked down the road a bit. The government funding
clash is going to recur, and soon.
Boehner isn’t solving THE problem. He’s solving HIS problem.
He won’t get booted out of the Speaker’s chair by his own party.
It’s all too dreary to think about this tempest of
leadership failure.
Our elected representatives in Washington aren’t leading or
governing in the public interest. They’re making a lot of noise, and keeping an
eye on the re-election cycle.
Why do we keep sending these folks back to Washington?
Copyright © Richard
Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
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