Quick Note: GOP Writing the Official Handbook of Bad Governing

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is trying to rally his troops to pass a spending bill before next Thursday in order to avoid another government shutdown. 

In a re-run of the last shutdown, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is rallying his sycophants to vote against the spending bill.  This week, he even went so far as to travel across the Capitol building to cajole his House GOP buddies into voting against the plan hammered out between more moderate House Republicans and party leadership.

John Boehner has admitted that, in order for the plan to pass the House, he will need the support of some House Democrats.  So, the plan is not a sure fire winner even without Mr. Cruz' interference.

Put together the "iffiness" of the Boehner plan and the fact that Ted Cruz wasn't simply chased back to his own chamber with his tail between his legs, and you have further evidence of John Boehner's inability to lead.  With that in mind, I found a comment made by a man who calls himself a close friend of the Speaker and quoted in the New York Times a few days ago interesting.   Representative Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma): "(John Boehner) never wanted to just be Speaker.  He's wanted to be a historically significant Speaker."

Well, if being the weakest Speaker in modern memory, the man who presided over the most unproductive and ineffective House in U.S. history, can be considered "significant," then he has fulfilled his dream.

While the Ted Cruz vs. Speaker-in-Name-Only Boehner drama is playing out in the House, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) is pushing the Senate to pass a series of short-term spending bills, "perhaps month to month." This would give Republicans the opportunity to wax grandiloquent on their anti-Obama sentiments every 30 days, thus ensuring that government gridlock is rewarded a permanent starring role in Washington while at the same time granting GOP members multiple opportunities to parade their anti-Obama creds to the little people back home. A real win-win for the GOP and a raspberry to America.

If this is how Republicans are planning to demonstrate their ability to "govern responsibly," we are looking two years of ugly in the face.