House Speaker John Boehner apparently believes he's finally found a compelling line of attack against President Obama's
refusal to yield to Republican extortion threats over the debt limit—and I'll guarantee you that it's a
stupider line of attack than you ever could have imagined:
House Speaker John Boehner has a message for President Barack Obama: You’ll negotiate with Russia and not Republicans?
The speaker’s office released a minute-long video on Thursday that splices together clips of Obama and White House officials saying they will not negotiate with Republicans over the debt limit, followed by clips of Obama and officials discussing negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the situation in Syria.
At the end of the video, the screen posts the question: “Why is the Obama administration willing to negotiate with Putin on Syria… but not with Congress to address Washington’s spending problem?”
First of all, if John Boehner wants to compare House Republicans to the Russian government and compare himself to Vladimir Putin, be my guest.
Second, President Obama has made it clear that he is willing to negotiate on budget issues, but he won't set a precedent that the minority party can effectively take control of the government simply by threatening to blow everything up. That really has nothing to do with Russia and Syria.
Third, if you nonetheless decided to pursue this ridiculous analogy, let's be clear on one thing: Whether you agree or disagree with the president, he's not negotiating with Putin and Russia over whether or not Syria should have or be able to use chemical weapons. He's negotiating on how to wrest them from Putin's control. And the reason that negotiation is taking place is because he's committed himself to taking military action against Syria if a deal can't be worked out.
Actually, now that I think about it, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea for Obama to take that approach with Republicans...
Sign our petition thanking President Obama for refusing to negotiate with Republicans over the full faith and credit of the United States, and urging him to stay strong.
