Congressional Republicans have a problem. They're on the brink of shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. They're going to be blamed for it. And they're going to be fighting with each other all the way over the cliff. House Republican leadership is ready and willing to shut down DHS, cutting off some programs and leaving 230,000 workers without paychecks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has proposed funding DHS
through September, setting up a conflict between House and Senate Republicans.
A shutdown won't be good for his party, but Speaker John Boehner has his reasons for supporting it:
Senate Democrats are refusing to sign on to McConnell’s proposal without a commitment from the speaker to move a “clean” DHS funding bill. But several House Republicans and their top aides have privately told POLITICO that a misstep by Boehner in this legislative skirmish could imperil his speakership. One said that Republicans would weigh trying to remove him from the position if he relents on his promise to fight the president’s unilateral action on immigration “tooth and nail.”
Boehner's personal goal of remaining speaker and McConnell's goal of being perceived as a responsible leader are sharply at odds in this one. And it looks increasingly like they don't have any kind of secret plan to bail their party out here:
After Senate Democrats repeatedly blocked the bill from even reaching a debate, McConnell said earlier this month that the next step was “up to” the House. But Boehner pushed back, saying it was in the Senate’s hands, feeding the perception in the Capitol that the two leaders failed to conceive of a plan out of the logjam from the onset.
“It seems like McConnell and Boehner aren’t even talking to each other,” one veteran GOP senator said. “It is mind-boggling.”
They're like little kids, saying "you go first" ... "no, you go first," because everyone knows that whoever goes first is going to be tripped from behind. And they're doing nothing to change the current stalemate McConnell can't pass a DHS funding bill that also attacks President Obama's immigration orders while Boehner won't risk his political capital to pass a clean bill. Meanwhile, a giant government department is preparing for partial shutdown, while hundreds of thousands of its workers face having to go to work every day knowing their paychecks are not on the way.
7:08 AM PT (Barbara Morrill): It seems that the "veteran GOP senator" was right:
Boehner told members he hasn't talked to McConnell in a couple weeks
— @ericawerner
