Boehner Needs Something For A Headache-- Something Strong

According to the latest Gallup poll, most Americans don't trust the Obama-Boehner deal and they blame Boehner and Republicans in Congress more than Obama and the Democrats. People are feeling surly and let down by our political elites. Sure, Boehner fares worst, but no one on either side of the aisle has reason for celebrating:

Boehner, as usual, is ignoring the broad spectrum of American voters and focusing on reestablishing unity in his fractured House caucus and appealing strictly to the Fox-Hate Talk far right base of the GOP. He says he absolves everyone in the caucus who's been opposing his insipid and incompetent leadership.

Boehner, who lost 12 of his members in a surprisingly hairy reelection vote, took the first steps in a closed-door conference meeting Friday morning. Boehner told lawmakers he would not seek to punish the Republicans who deserted him on the House floor Thursday.

"I'm not a retribution kind of guy. I don't hold grudges," Boehner said in the meeting, according to several people in the room. "My door is always open, whether you voted for me, or didn’t vote for me.”

Lawmakers say the next two to three months of fiscal battles will be a crucial period for Boehner, who begins the 113th Congress with a smaller majority that includes a cadre of conservatives who have gone public in their opposition to his leadership.

The Speaker's immediate goal, members say, is to craft legislation that raises the debt ceiling and cuts spending while winning 218 Republican votes in the House.

...The defections against Boehner in the vote for Speaker made clear that his struggle to unify the House GOP will continue in the 113th Congress. They serve as a warning to Boehner of the risks in repeatedly bringing bills to the floor that do not have majority Republican support.

Yes, the 113th looks like it will feature an even more extreme and radicalized Republican majority-- albeit a shrunken one. They lost some of their craziest and most radical members, like Allen West, Joe Walsh, Mean Jean Schmidt and Todd Akin, but of the 67 Republicans who abandoned Boehner on the vote Friday for aid to the victims of Superstorm Sandy, 18 were very far right freshman (or sleazy characters playing up to radical right local voters): Kerry Bentivolio (MI), Jim Bridenstine (OK), Doug Collins (GA), Tom Cotton (AR), Steve Daines (MT), Ron DeSantis (FL), George Holding (NC), Richard Hudson (NC), Thomas Massie (KY), Mark Meadows (NC), Markwayne Mullin (OK), Scott Perry (PA), Keith Rothfus (PA), Matt Salmon (AZ), Randy Weber (TX), Brad Wenstrup (OH), Roger Williams (TX), and Ted Yoho (FL).

You almost want to say "poor Boehner." Almost.