After three painful weeks of power gone so bad that Dana Milbank corrected Speaker Boehner’s attempt toit a “stumble”, writing it is more of a “pratfall”, Republicans are facing yet another humiliating moment after Speaker John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address to Congress on March 3.
A few problems with this scenario: It takes place in the lead up to the Israeli elections and Speaker Boehner never asked the White House, in fact he went around the White House in an attempt to use Netanyahu to force a play against the President’s foreign policy.
In a letter three House Democrats plan to send to the Speaker, according to Jake Sherman at Politico, they don’t mince words, accusing Speaker Boehner of undermining the President’s foreign policy and inviting a foreign leader to influence United States policy.
The Democrats urged Boehner to postpone the visit, writing according to Sherman, “Our relationship with Israel is too important to use as a pawn in political gamesmanship.” More via Politico:
Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Maxine Waters of California said Boehner’s invitation for Netanyahu to speak March 3 is “harmful for three reasons: it undermines the president’s foreign policy; it puts a close ally in the middle of a domestic political debate, and it elevates a candidate in a foreign election.”
…The letter accuses Boehner of launching “an attempt to promote new sanctions legislation against Iran that could undermine critical negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran.”
…
“At the State of the Union President Obama made it clear that he will veto new Iran sanctions legislation,” they write. “The invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu enlists a foreign leader to influence a Presidential policy initiative. We should be able to disagree on foreign policy within our American political system and without undermining the Presidency. Aside from being improper, this places Israel, a close and valued ally, in the middle of a policy debate between Congress and the White House.
They add: “As members of Congress who support Israel, we share concern that it appears that you are using a foreign leader as a political tool against the president. We should not turn our diplomatic friendship into a partisan issue. Beyond threatening our diplomatic priorities, the timing of this invitation offers the Congressional platform to elevate a candidate in a foreign election.”
The Prime Minister has spoken two times to Congress, as Leader Pelosi pointed out in a press conference Wednesday:
On the other hand, in terms of invitations to speak to Congress – the Prime Minister has spoken two times. The only person who has spoken more is Winston Churchill. One of the times, my father was in the room; December 26 – the day after Christmas – 1941, right when we were going into World War II. It’s a serious, big honor that we extend. That it should be extended two weeks before an election in a country, without collaboration among the Leaders of Congress, and without collaboration with the White House, is not appropriate. It is not appropriate.
It is not appropriate and since it forced Democrats to chose between their President and the course of action Boehner is angling for that some of them were going to support, it has left Boehner with legislative egg on his face again. But this time the stench is more ominous than just blatant incompetence.
As Milbank summed it up, Republican leadership has thus far amounted to a long, legislative pratfall involving a banana peel and a slide into a wedding cake:
What has happened since Republicans took full control of Congress three weeks ago has been less a stumble than a pratfall involving the legislative equivalent of a banana peel, flailing arms, an upended bookcase, torn drapes and a slide across a laden banquet table into a wedding cake.
Not exactly screaming “competence”.
And now Republicans — in their eagerness to outmaneuver a President who won’t play Lame Duck and pretend he wasn’t elected twice – have invited a foreign leader to influence the foreign policy of the United States.
There are surely better ways to show their patriotism than this.
The political press like to call this Republicans learning that it’s hard to govern, but if that were the case, this would happen to both parties when they suddenly got power and it has not. In recent times, this kind of heady drunken delusion has befallen only one party. It’s the party that former President Bill Clinton turned into festering hypocrites cutting off their own noses to spite him.
But hey. President Obama is just in the fragile middle of an attempt to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. By all means, let’s watch the Speaker trip over another Republican banana peel and just hope he doesn’t land in nuclear disaster.
Have you heard the one about the banana peel and the traitor? Stay tuned.
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