TPM reports that John Boehner is trying to have it both ways on the detailed fiscal plan offered by the top Republican on the House Budget Committee.
The plan, presented by Rep. Paul Ryan, the budget committee's ranking Republican, wouldn't bring the budget into balance until 2050 despite slashing Medicare and privatizing Social Security.
Now Boehner appears caught between salivating Democrats and angry teabaggers. On the one hand, TPM reports Boehner seems to be distancing himself from it:
"Paul Ryan, who's the ranking member on our budget committee, has done an awful lot of work in putting together his roadmap," Boehner said. "But it's his. And I know the Democrats are trying to say that it's the Republican leadership. But they know that's not the case."
But even though Boehner won't publicly back the plan, he won't criticize it either:
when asked today at a press conference what about Ryan's budget he disagreed with, Minority Leader John Boehner couldn't name anything.
"Off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you," Boehner said.
That pretty much sums up the GOP's political problem. They don't want people to think they are the "party of no," but whenever they offer up an unpopular idea, they refuse to rally around it. So they don't want to seem like they are for nothing, but they also don't want to admit what they are really for.
It is this Republican weakness that could have made 2010 a better than normal midterm for Democrats (and potentially still could), but until Democrats start delivering on the change they promised in significant policy areas like health care and energy policy, they won't be able to take advantage of the GOP soft spot. If Boehner's waffling illustrates nothing else, it should underscore President Obama's message to wavering congressional Democrats: don't run for the hills. Get the job done. That's the secret to winning elections.
Cowering in the shaddow of a waffler like John Boehner won't get you anywhere.