The Speaker Has Left The House

Official portrait of United States House Speaker (R-Ohio). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pope Francis is in the United States right now, in case you haven't noticed.  So far he's visited Washington and spoke to a joint session of Congress.  As this is being published, His Holiness is in New York City, having addressed the United Nations and holding Mass at Madison Square Garden.  Then he's off to Philadelphia for a family conference before going home.

No doubt the Pope's visit has influenced the many lives of those who have come from far and wide just to get a glimpse of him.  This includes John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives and third in line for presidential succession.  The day after the Pope made his historic address inside the House chamber, Boehner rocked the political world by announcing his resignation as Speaker and as a member of Congress, effective at the end of October.

The Ohio Republican--he of the perpetual tan and a noted tendency to cry a lot--has served in Congress since 1991, and has been Speaker since after the GOP took control of the House in the 2010 elections.  Boehner said in a news conference that he made his decision after meeting with Pope Francis following his address, then prayed on it.  He said he had planned to resign at the end of the year, but events forced him to move up the timetable.

Boehner, a conservative who as Speaker has had numerous run-ins with President Barack Obama and other "my way or the highway" Republicans over his fiscal policy and his leadership--to the point of shutting down the U.S. government, apparently reached his limit when some of the more conservative members of his party tried to shut down the government again over funding for Planned Parenthood.  They wanted Boehner to take a harder line on the issue, but he said he just couldn't go through with that again.

The GOP is in complete disarray right now.  The Tea Party faction is willing to stop the U.S. government from doing its job for idiotic reasons, disrupting the lives of those who work for them or otherwise depend on it to function.  They're so far right that Dwight Eisenhower, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan would be considered Democrats today.  So who are the leading candidates in the GOP presidential race?  Donald Trump. Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson.  Businesspeople who have never held political office before.  That's how screwed up the Republicans are, and why few of them are sad to see Boehner go.

Kevin McCarthy, a California congressman and House Majority Leader who also happens to be Boehner's deputy, is considered the early favorite to be the next Speaker. 

Now that John Boehner is putting Congress in the rear view mirror, it'll be interesting to see if anything changes in Washington before and after the 2016 elections.  As it stands right now, it's going to take more than just a visit from Pope Francis to get those from the far left and right to come together for the good of the country.

It's going to take a miracle.

Three Hours in Simi Valley

English: Carly Fiorina Português: A empresária Carly Fiorina em São Paulo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The second Republican presidential debate, held this time at the Ronald Reagan Library in California, was three hours of watching 11 White House wannabees struggling to explain to a CNN audience why they would want to follow in The Gipper's footsteps.  They all stood in front of the Air Force One that Reagan used during his term in office, making it look like this was taking place in an airplane hangar.

Donald Trump, who has been the GOP front-runner for the last few weeks, continued to mug for the cameras and make brash statements.  That's a given.  What's different this time was that the ten other candidates took potshots at Trump and his limitations on such issues as foreign policy and immigration reform, which may have caused him to lay back for long stretches of time.

The other guys--Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, etc.--did their best to attack Trump and to make their own points.  Quite frankly, they had to.  With the exception of Dr. Ben Carson, none of them had poll ratings beyond the single digits.  Only Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, made the most of her promotion from the kids' table at the last debate.  Her icy response to Trump's "that face" reference and what she would do once in office spoke volumes about her candidacy, if you don't count Trump's (mostly true) references to Fiorina's nearly running HP into the ground.

Jeb! Bush tried hard to distance himself from the policies of the previous members of his family who once ran the country.  But mentioning that George W. had "kept us safe" when it was obvious that he did not, admitting to smoking marijuana many years ago, and coaxing Trump to apologize to his wife for including her in the immigration debate was not exactly becoming.  Everyone knows that Trump never apologizes.

In three hours on CNN and Salem Radio (which the network frequently invoked whenever conservative talk host Hugh Hewitt asked a question), moderator Jake Tapper tried to get a word in as the candidates constantly interrupted and talked over each other while discussing re-arming the military and de-funding Planned Parenthood over allegedly doctored videos.  This is what happens when you have eleven people on the same stage telling the world how they would run the country.  It turns into verbal Wrestlemania.

If Reagan were alive to see this, he would have stood there and shook his head, saying "there you go again".  Then he would have taken a nap.  That's more than any of us would have done.

Random Thoughts: 9/11/01 Edition

This is the anniversary of the attacks on New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington, and a field somewhere in Pennsylvania.  Nearly three thousand people died that day.  Now some folks want to make September 11 a national holiday.  The first thing is, didn't we just have a holiday a few days ago?  The second is, isn't this already called Patriot Day?  The third thing?  The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 that forced America into World War II has never been considered a national holiday.  Why should 9/11 be?
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The nuclear deal with Iran, in which they agreed to refrain from anything close to a weapons program for the next ten years in exchange for easing economic sanctions that have been in place at least since American diplomatic personnel were held hostage for 444 days 35 years ago, is more or less a done deal if you believe the White House.  The Obama administration claims to have enough votes in Congress for the deal to pass, despite vehement opposition from the Republicans and guys like former Vice President Dick Cheney and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There are flaws in the agreement, to be sure.  Would Iran hold up its end of the bargain inspecting their own nuclear facilities, and making sure none of the money that comes from lifting sanctions goes into allegedly supporting terrorism?  Or are we reading too much into those TV ads opposing the deal?

We are told that this is the best agreement we're going to get.  It won't end the "Death to America" rhetoric coming out of Tehran, but it's a start.  So unless someone else has a better idea besides going to war with Iran, why would Congress want to look more foolish than they already are in disapproving the deal?
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Syrian refugees fleeing a devastating civil war between a despotic dictatorship and a murderous would-be caliphate are flocking to Europe in droves, particularly to Germany, where they are promised a new life.  (Which is quite a contrast from when everybody wanted to escape Germany and its despotic dictator.)  The U.S. has offered to take in at least 10,000 of those migrants per year, but some say it should be more.  So what are you going to do with all those people who through no fault of their own will probably never return to Syria, whether they want to or not?  And doesn't this make the debate about whether to wall off our borders sound a tad ridiculous?
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The Islamic State has been doing a much better job in recruiting youth to their violence-plagued paradise than anyone could have anticipated, as evidenced by all the arrests made on those who attempted to join them.  Somehow all the bombing being done by the U.S. just isn't cutting it, as apparently what doesn't kill the Islamic State seems to make them stronger.
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It's been 14 years since that September morning, and nobody has figured out an adequate answer to the question Why do they hate us so much?  These days it depends on your definition of who hates whom.  Is it anyone who worships at a mosque?  Is it police officers who stop those who are doing anything while black?  Is it government employees who refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because it's against their religion?  Or is it just because?  If you are able to answer these questions and more, be prepared for the fallout.  Because there is no right answer.