Resign as Speaker

John Boehner has failed as a leader of the Speaker of the House. He has done so on a more critical issue than Nancy Pelosi or Dennis Hassert ever did.

The failure to vote on a plan last night, days before the deadline for default, shows that the Speaker has been gambling without even checking what cards were in his hand. He went all in and he failed. And when you do that, there should be a consequence.

I do not think Boehner has committed a malfeasance that would make him ineligible for office. But in the first true test of his leadership, his leadership fell short. For the man leading the so-called party of personal responsibility, there is only one realistic option.

Redstate today says the market crash today is because of "Obamanomics," and not because of what happened in the House yesterday. It is just weird timing, I guess, that the discovery of this mysterious economic philosophy would happen

Mitch McConnell is on TV right now saying the Democrats should come up with a philosophy that majorities in both chambers would agree too, but the Speaker of the House cannot even get a plan that members of his own caucus will support. It seems to me McConnell, who has been compared to Pontius Pilot by his supporters, is not reading the landscape so well.

The only hope at this point is that Boehner will step aside and a new Speaker will take a Senate-passed plan and put it to a vote. This, of course, would do what McConnell demands because it would get all Democratic House members to support it and get the responsible Republican House members who want to avoid default to vote in favor of a Democratic plan.

Republican leadership needs to realize right now that they have lost this game. The deadline is looming. If the Senate can pass a plan and the House cannot, it does no good for the GOP-controlled House to reject the only plan on the table. The gaming is over. It is time for a plan.

Boehner failed to hold his own caucus together. He walked out of talks with a Democratic president. He has used up all of his credibility with the left, and then used up all of his credibility on the right. It is time for him to fade into the background of Washington politics.