[THEHILL] Speaker John It is not pronounced 'Boner!'Boehner
... the occasionally weepy leader of House Republicans...
(R-Ohio) is sharing his regrets about his "fiscal-cliff" strategy, less than a month after the House bitterly swallowed a last-minute deal hatched in the Senate.
Apparently it doesn't make him feel any real shame, otherwise he'd have stepped down as Speaker, maybe even from the House.
In a private speech to the Ripon Society on Tuesday, Boehner said that he should have taken a different course after the November election by immediately demanding that the Senate produce a bill to avert the worst parts of a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that were due to hit on Jan. 1.
The Dems don't spend a lot of time worrying about Publican "demands."
Instead, Boehner delivered a formal speech at the Capitol on the day after President B.O. won a second term, in which he offered a major Republican concession -- new tax revenue as part of a broader fiscal deal.
"Hokay. We surrender! Whatever principles we had are now abandoned!"
"Looking back, what I should have done the day after the election was to make it clear the House has passed a bill to extend all of the current tax rates, the House has passed a bill to replace the sequester with cuts in mandatory spending, and the Senate ought to do its work," Boehner said. "We're ready, able and willing to work with the Senate as soon as they produce a bill. It should have been what I said. You know, again, hindsight is 20-20."
Shut up and step down.
