House Speaker John Boehner's bluff is that there aren't enough votes in the House for a clean continuing resolution. Monday, President Obama once again called that bluff:
"My very strong suspicion is there are enough votes there" to pass the government funding legislation, he said during an unannounced stop at FEMA National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C. "Hold a vote. Call a vote right now. Let's see what happens.''
"If Republicans and Speaker Boehner are saying there aren't enough votes, then they should prove it," he said. "Let the bill go to the floor and let's see what happens. Just vote."
If Boehner's so confident that the votes aren't there, how would it hurt his position to prove that? The fact that he won't call a vote as much as anything shows that the votes are there—and he's either too afraid of or too in bed with his party's extremist vandal wing to do anything but keep bluffing.
12:24 PM PT: Read a transcript of President Obama's remarks to press at FEMA headquarters here.