Speaker Boehner dealing with House GOP (Image: DonkeyHotey)

Alexander Bolton over at The Hill has a nice piece about the implosions going off in the GOP on Capitol Hillover funding DHS, but it’s far too restrained in its observations. I, on the other hand, feel a bit freer to read between the lines . . . I’m shocked — shocked, I tell you:

Senate Republicans are fuming over the House GOP’s decision to extend the standoff over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a move that they say uses up political oxygen and burns precious time on the legislative calendar.

You don’t say.

GOP senators say it’s time to move on to other issues, such as the budget, trade legislation, and regulatory and tax reform. They must defend 24 seats in the 2016 election and worry that voters could soon start to question their ability to govern unless they can move forward with a more substantive agenda.

Yeah, I’d say that questions about the GOP’s ability to govern are certainly in order.

“I just think we ought to move on to other things. I’m not sure how it helps for the American people to have the perception that Republicans in the Senate and Republicans in the House are at odds with each other,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

I wonder what gave the American people that perception?

“We have a lot of initiatives I think we could show the American people we can work together on,” he added.

Presumes facts not in evidence, Senator.

House conservatives say they want to pressure Senate Democrats to agree to a bicameral conference, in which the two chambers would hash out a compromise that would both fund homeland security and repeal some of Obama’s orders.

House conservatives also want the Senate to eliminate Obamacare and do all manner of other things that aren’t going to happen. Someone in the senate has their head on straight, however, though he covered his face so no one could accuse him of having a good grasp of reality:

But Senate Republicans say hopes of going to conference are delusional. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) ruled out the possibility Thursday. “What’s frustrating is that the House guys think any of the Democrats over here are under pressure to vote or cloture. They’re in their own little bubble, it’s myopic,” said a Senate Republican, who requested anonymity to vent his irritation with House colleagues.

My guess is that “irritation” is a mild word.

McConnell and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) have appeared out of sync in recent weeks as tensions ratcheted up between the chambers. Boehner said Wednesday that he had not spoken with McConnell in two weeks.

I’m guessing that when pressed by McConnell to get something done, Boehner’s answer boiled down to “Look, there’s nothing I can do to rein these guys in, until the very last minute and even then I’m not sure enough of them will cave rather than shut down parts of DHS. How much could you get done if a third of your caucus were Ted Cruz acolytes?” McConnell, for his part, could only pat him on the back and say “Good point. See you at midnight when the deadline rolls around.” But The Man of Orange has at least one friend trying to help. Not that it did any good, mind you, but he’s out there trying:

Boehner ally Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) speaking before the push for a three-week continuing resolution failed, asserted that the move was intended to push back against the Senate as much as anything else. He noted that the implementation of Obama’s executive action will likely be decided by the courts. “I think the decisive arena is the courts,” he said. “I think this is about holding our own ground and it’s also a message to the Senate. There’s a lot of different levels to this. On some levels it’s Republicans versus Democrats but there’s a lot of House versus Senate.”

No kidding. A whole lot of House versus Senate. For that matter, there’s a whole lot of House versus House, but that’s been the story of the House GOP since Boehner couldn’t deliver on the Farm Bill in 2013. Wait a minute . . . (quickly re-reading that post) Look at how that old post started:

Honest to God, the goings-on in DC are going to drive the Comedy Channel out of business. Just when they think they’ve come up with a great new sketch, reality trumps them and blows them away. Either they’ll fold and go out of business, or they’ll make Jon Stewart president.

The House GOP is clearly upping their game on the comedy business. At his press conference the other day, Boehner gave his best Marshawn “I’m just here so I don’t get fined” Lynch impression, repeatedly giving the same answer to multiple questions: “I’m waiting for the Senate to act . . . I’m waiting for the Senate to act . . . I’m waiting . . .” Obviously I was right about the ability of House Republicans to write sketch comedy better than the folks on Comedy Central. Even Jon Stewart seems to agree, as he has thrown in the towel. Or . . . Maybe, just maybe, Jon Stewart isn’t throwing in the towel and going out of business when he leaves The Daily Show. Maybe, just maybe, he is secretly planning to run for president. And you know who else just left a wildly popular comedy show? Stewart/Fey 2016 has a nice ring, don’t you think? A boy can dream . . . And before you think I’m crazy, let me introduce you to a certain Senator from Minnesota.

________
image h/t to DonkeyHotey and used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license