Lawless Administration Puts Boehner in a Corner

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Commentary Magazine: Lawless Administration Puts Boehner in a Corner

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary 09.10.2015 - 9:30 AM

As Congress reassembled this week after the Labor Day holiday, buzzards were starting to circle the air space over House Speaker John Boehner. As Politico noted, the speaker was locked into another collision course with members of his own caucus over a potential government shutdown. That set up the real possibility of a challenge to Boehner’s leadership sometime this session. Even if he survives another ordeal by fire from discontented conservatives, rumors are now circulating that Boehner will give up the speakership in January 2017 rather than seek to lead the House a fourth consecutive term. That sense of chaos in the House was accentuated today when an effort by the leadership to begin a debate on the Iran nuclear deal was sidelined because many members of the GOP caucus believe Boehner and the Senate leadership is wrong to merely go ahead and debate a measure that Democrats are sure to block. But while Boehner has had good reason to complain about the difficulty of managing the unruly Republican House, in this case, those calling for a delay were in the right..