Goldilocks With A Tan
by digby
The second time today I thought I was reading The Onion:
The Necessary Man
Ignore the fake tan. John Boehner could actually be a good speaker of the House.
No that isn’t David Brooks, although I’m sure he’ll get right on that. It’s Newsweak.
Don’t you want to know why he’ll be such a good speaker?
In truth, Boehner is one of the few players in American politics with the potential to give both Republicans and Democrats what they need in the wake of November’s anticipated GOP landslide. For the left, that means an experienced legislative negotiator on the opposite side of the aisle. For the right, it means a leader who can rack up tangible accomplishments for the party to run on in 2012—while also keeping the new, red-meat caucus from eating him alive.
He’s juuuuust right.
And for “the left” that’s great news because he’s an experienced negotiator, which presumably means that he knows just how to screw us. In Villagespeak, that’s just what we need:
…GOP speakers have worked with Democratic presidents before and gotten results. In the mid-1990s, for example, Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich buckled down and, over the course of dozens of long, wonky White House bull sessions, hammered out plans to reform welfare, balance the budget, pay off $405 billion in debt, provide health care to uninsured children, and make Medicare and Social Security more sustainable—even though Gingrich was better known for partisan warfare than compromise.
Golly I can hardly wait.(I don’t know what the hell they are talking about with Medicare and Social Security, but you sure don’t hear anybody touting this great accomplishment.)
This reminds me of some village wisdom from a decade ago:
“Given the present bitterness, given the angry irresponsible charges being hurled by both camps, the nation will be in dire need of a conciliator, a likable guy who will make things better and not worse. That man is not Al Gore. That man is George W. Bush.”
How’d that work out for us?
.