Moe Lane

Roll Call titled this article “Boehner Threads a Needle,” and I think that they have the right of it.  If he had lost control of the debt ceiling process, Speaker Boehner would have been crippled for the rest of this term, and probably been out of the leadership cadre as soon as it could have been done without unnecessary embarrassment; as it is, the various factions of the GOP caucus have a pretty good idea of how far they can all push things before they run up against the Speaker of the House’s power, which is… considerable, in this country*.

Fortunately, this entire exercise should also give the Speaker an idea about how very, very seriously the Right is taking fiscal issues right now, too.  Given that Speaker Boehner would very much like to keep being Speaker Boehner, that’s all to the good.

Moe Lane

PS: I know that a lot of folks are unhappy about the final deal: not enough ground was recaptured.  True.  We didn’t liberate Paris on June 7, 1944, either… oh, sorry, violent rhetoric.  My bad.

*One reason why so few Speakers run for President; it’s almost as powerful a job and, apparently, often a lot more fun.

This would be sad…

At Thursday’s White House meeting between President Obama and congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner laid out in stark terms the awful economic repercussions of allowing the debt ceiling to lapse. Everyone in the room agreed that defaulting on U.S. debt would be disastrous and that something must be done. At that point, Nancy Pelosi asked: Why couldn’t the debt ceiling be decoupled from deficit reduction?

Her query, after so many weeks of reports and talks centered on deficit reduction tied to a debt ceiling deal, visibly surprised some leaders in the room, several Republican and Democratic sources say. Obama politely informed the House Minority Leader, those same sources say, that that train had left the station weeks ago.

…if it had happened to anybody else except the House Minority Leader.  As it is, it’s a glaring (or entertaining) reminder of why former Speakers of the House typically, you know, leave after they’ve been repudiated.  The woman has less power now than she did as House Minority Leader in 2005, when both Congress and the White House were held by Republicans; when a politician slips down from the pinnacle of power to his/her old position, that politician has by definition demonstrated an essential weakness.  Expecting other politicians not to note that, and act accordingly, is… foolish.

(more…)

…because she hadn’t a clue about the Senate ACORN defunding amendment.  Note that the New York Post is a little more forceful than me; they called Speaker Pelosi ‘clueless.’  Which is not actually unfair of them: keeping track of things like this is part of the Speaker of the House’s job.

Then again, so is paying attention to what happens on the House floor.

(Via JammieWearingFool, via Instapundit)

Crossposted to RedState.

Even if Rahm Emanuel manages to leave this administration with his reputation intact.

Even if Rahm Emanuel manages to win back the seat that he gave up to become Chief of Staff.

Even if the Democrats keep control of the House of Representatives.

He’s made too many new enemies on his own side in his new job. And there’s no ideological / theological reason for those enemies to not take out their frustrations on him.

Just saying, that’s all.

Crossposted to RedState.