The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers ...
--U.S.Constitution, Article I, Section 2
The Speaker of the House of Representatives holds a constitutional office. He, or she, has a constitutional obligation to act on behalf of the nation, and all of its people. He, or she, is chosen by all of the members of the House to act on their behalf.
Not on behalf of a majority, or a majority of a majority. On behalf of the whole House. On behalf of the whole nation.
But you would never guess this by watching John Boehner, who has never stopped acting like a caucus leader even while serving as Speaker for the past two years and nine months.
As a matter of fact, he has not even been acting like a caucus leader. Even a good caucus leader knows how to read the riot act to his craziest followers, being mindful of the fact that politics is the art of the possible, and that a party that specializes in political suicide will not be a party--or, at least, a national party--for very long. A good caucus leader knows how to balance serving the needs of the caucus members with the need to work with the opposition. A great caucus leader knows how to do this in such a way that the whole nation benefits as a result. But even a merely good leader knows that a leader who acts like a follower with everyone ends up with no respect--and will not be a leader for very long.
John Boehner is Speaker of the House. But he is an elected national leader who has chosen to remain a party leader, and has done so by acting like a follower, allowing the most insane members of his party to make demands he knows cannot be met, and pretending that he is somehow bound to follow "the majority of the majority."
Well, the majority of the majority is, by definition, a minority of the body that John Boehner has been elected to lead as Speaker. He should have let Eric Cantor deal with the Tea Party crazies, and made it clear that he would only support legislation--be it the Federal budget, or comprehensive immigration reform--that could win the support of members from both sides of the aisle. That's what he would have done if he had a clue about the Constitutional nature of his job. That's what he would have done if he understood that leadership and self-assertion go hand in hand.
But all he has shown is that he likes the short-term perks of his job, and that, for now, he needs the help of the crazies to keep those perks.
Which is why we are on the verge of a government shutdown nobody wants (except the crazies, of course). Which is why we could have CIR right now, except that the crazies, and therefore Boehner, won't allow a vote on it. Which is why, at a time when the deficit is falling and public spending is desperately needed to provide jobs and growth, we have a House of Representatives looking for new and more exciting ways to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted.
Because John Boehner, its Speaker, has opted to act not as a national leader or even as a party leader, but as the leader of the Tea Party caucus, a caucus that doesn't want to be led, or even to share leadership. It just wants to destroy everything it doesn't like, in the name of freedom--its freedom, not everyone's.
Which is why, after the next election, neither the nation nor its House will have to worry about either John Boehner, or the Tea Party, ever again.
G-d willing, that is. Because He, She, It or They works in mysterious ways. And history teaches us that America's learning curve is very steep. Which is why Winston Churchill once said that you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing--after they've tried everything else.
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