For months, we have witnessed the growing fury within the GOP’s tea party and the growing rancor to its united front. Last week, House Majority Speaker John Boehner pulled the plug on a deal that he crafted along with Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate. It seems the tea party would support it. Immediately, pundits fell back on the old GOP gold-standard: President Ronald Reagan. Would such animus that the tea party presented have been allowed during Reagan’s era? Not likely. And, keep in mind that Boehner was a young Reagan protegé who has spoken publicly about the most important thing he learned from the Gipper was a strong, impenetrable front line. Suddenly, the Boehner’s strong Atlas-style leadership of November 2010, was looking like Popeye in need of a can of spinach with some added spirulina for extra fortification. The front line had developed a faction of its own.
News of a debt deal on the table made some less nervous about the future. Seniors all over the country were phoning each other during the weekend. It seems that some received their Social Security checks a little early. As one 82-year-old said to me, “Thank, God for President Obama. He did that for us.”
Whether he did or not remains a mystery as well as whether it was a fluke or not. More telling about the rising tide of the debt deal was the opening bell at the global markets: NASDAQ and NYSE (American), the FTSE (London), the DAX (Germany), and the CAC (Paris). It was … decent across the board. But, following this meltdown aversion deal, the markets will still need to show sustained growth. Speaker Boehner’s Monday test will be to rally enough support from House Republicans to pass the deal that is on the table, a compromise, of sorts, between congressional leaders and the tea party movement.
Sure, Democrats control the White House and the Senate, but the debate about the debt ceiling largely was a Republican theatrical play. Pundits on both sides surmise that the tea party played this masterfully, ready to drive the global economy into the drink. Even master negotiators who find their actions deplorable agree that though referred to as “junior Congressmen” their no-blink brand of negotiating were those of senior, well-heeled policy makers. The Democratic-led Senate is expected to pass the deal, but it may face a harder path in the House of Representatives where both conservative tea party supporters and liberal lawmakers have expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement. The White House is battling comparisons to Jimmy Carter’s presidency while its opponents take every opportunity to point out similarities. Too bad Rodney Dangerfield isn’t here to advise the good folks on Pennsylvania Avenue on how to work a tough room.
Election night, November 2010, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell predicted that the newly elected tea party members were going to hold the debt ceiling debate in the palm of their hand and make it a bigger issue than it was. President Bush raised it nearly 10 times, so did President Clinton. Every sitting U.S. president in the 20th century raised the debt limit. O’Donnell correctly stated recently that what the tea party members failed to realize is that there is a “time to campaign and a time to govern.” The polls show most American disgusted with everything Washington, D.C.-based except the cherry blossoms. Based on the bloody, family reunion picnic-style brawl we all just witnessed, as well as our friends and foes around the world, that is not likely to change.
