Since House Speaker John Boehner announced in September his intention to resign, the mainstream media have worked tirelessly to advance a consistent and troubling narrative: “a small minority of conservative extremists continue to hold the House of Representatives hostage and rendered Speaker Boehner and Republicans unable to govern. …”
This analysis generally goes further to state specifically that it proves that Boehner lacked much of a backbone, leadership abilities or ability to rein in these “extremists.”
Conveniently for the mainstream media, such an assessment ignores previous standards applied when assessing responsibility or blame for landmark legislation.
In 2009 — when Democrats controlled the House, Senate (with 60 votes for a time) and the White House — failure to advance liberal priorities was in fact “a failure of the Republicans to put the national interest ahead of partisan goals.”
Why when Mitch McConnell allowed as how it was his goal to make President Obama a one-term president that was seen as nothing short of evil stated out loud. Never mind that the context for the statement was entirely related to policy positions that he wanted to come to an end.
One is tempted to ask why, when the Democrats were in complete control, were Republicans to blame? A look back at the coverage, however, shows that it was the Republicans’ fault then, just as it is now. They are apparently always to blame.
Fast forward to 2015. Republicans have 247 seats in the House, the Democrats 188. The majority it takes to get something done is 218. It is a fact that, at any given time (and any given time is virtually all the time), Speaker Boehner could rely on having something in the neighborhood of 205-215 votes. In other words, he was very close to a majority, but could not count on it without either support from far-right Republicans or a handful of Democrats.
Rather than govern, as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi purports to do, she consistently stated that Democrats would not “bail out” Speaker Boehner from his troubles. Let’s think about that sentiment for just a little while.
If the Democrats are close to 100 percent united in agreeing to oppose anything coming from the Republicans, how is that not being absolutely partisan in behavior? How is it possible that at no turn do Democrats have any obligation to come to the table to try to work out something?
Another point to ponder is why it was ever so important for Republicans to understand, as President Obama has always been quick to observe, that Democrats had “won” when they controlled the House and Senate, but is not all that consequential today.
When Republicans were in the minority, it was never in doubt as to their need to be willing to accept tiny victories, but Democrats are simply “standing on principle” in opposing anything coming from an overwhelming majority of Republicans. Can we agree that the definition of bipartisan or compromise should be something more than a Republican agreeing to do 100 percent of what the Democrats want done — best when accompanied with an apology for not agreeing in the first place? Do not both sides have to give a little to achieve common ground? Should not the majority ordinarily get more of what it wants than the minority?
The truth is this. Given what the numbers have been, if the Democrats refuse to do a single thing to add a small number to the 205-215 votes Speaker Boehner can rely upon, the only way to get to 218 would be to find a way to get to common ground with the very group of archconservatives the media love to deride. This is not a weakness in leadership, that is arithmetic.
The mainstream media, especially any that actually cover Congress, know this full well. Their failure to do anything except blame Republicans for problems, and the most conservative Republicans for not being able to overcome these problems, is nothing more than a complete reflection of the mainstream media largely being an extension of the Democratic Party. That is not hyperbole. That is fact.
If all the mainstream media did was to apply the very same standards that were abundantly clear as being right back in 2009 now in 2015, they would be forced to acknowledge the single biggest obstacle for Speaker Boehner in attaining majority support for any number of things is simply the absolute partisanship and rigid opposition of the Democratic Party under the iron hand of Nancy Pelosi.
It is the dirty little secret of what is happening in Congress, and that awaits likely-Speaker Paul Ryan. Don’t bother to hold your breath in the hopes of seeing this behavior by the mainstream media of coming to an end any time soon. It is who they are. It is how they operate.
