Boehner Goes Limp.

This is a huge defeat for our coward of a Speaker, John Boehner:

House Republicans tried a fresh strategy Wednesday night: Go it alone on a spending bill.

The result was an embarrassing setback.

Wednesday night’s rank-and-file rebuke of GOP leadership — with 48 Republicans bolting on a temporary spending bill — underscored the fact that the House Republican majority is still struggling to find unity on major spending bills. It also showed they still need Democratic votes to help them govern.

The pressure from an angry Speaker John Boehner didn’t work — he even threatened to strip committee assignments. Four dozen Republicans —mostly conservatives — wanted more cuts, and they just said no, creating an uncomfortable scene on the House floor as the funding bill failed on a 195-230 vote. Democrats showed a rare moment of unity in overwhelmingly opposing the continuing resolution, which would keep the government funded through Nov. 18.

Speaker Boehner can’t control his own party. He has to rely on Democrats to vote on spending bills or debt ceiling rises, because the teahadist wing of his party is in open revolt against him. First some background. Last week, the Senate passed emergency disaster funding that the Republicans tried to filibuster because they hate Americans who are disaster victims and they hate rebuilding America, because they hate America. But I digress. Harry Reid urged the House to follow suit. Boehner and Cantor decided to respond by thumbing their noses at the Senate, and instead of crafting their own emergency disaster bill, they including the disaster funding in a larger spending bill, offsetting the costs by slashing a clean-energy program and a successful and popular auto loan program. And then they would tell the Senate to pass the bill or die, or something akin to their evil and criminal hostage taking strategy they have used time and again. What Boehner and Cantor did not count on was 48 of their own caucus voting with the Democrats against the bill. The teahadists vote against all spending, or anything that even has a chance to help non-rich people.

So, because of the petulant and childish games of all Republicans in Congress, we are now days away from a government shutdown. Seriously folks, this is how the GOP governs. And you want to put these evil incompetent clowns in power?

What next?

Boehner should be embarrassed enough by now to resign as speaker. He can’t control his majority caucus.

He really has only three choices: 1) resign, or 2) govern the chamber with non-teahadist Repubicans and Democrats, or 3) go full teatard.

To avert a government shutdown, assuming that he wants to avert a government shutdown, and that’s an open question, he can simply pass the Senate bill with non-teahadist Republicans and Democrats. But that will show he is pursuing optional 2. Or he could renege on the deal last month that allowed the debt ceiling bill to pass (which would be evil and dishonest but hey, he is a Republican), embrace the tea party and seek to cut more spending in Medicare and Social Security, which will be defeated by the Senate, and lead to a shutdown.

And this all has to happen this weekend, because, even though Congress was out the entire month of August, they need another vacation for the full last week of September.