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Boehner’s Stunning Fox News Interview: I Didn’t Want ‘Interference’ From Obama In Netanyahu Speech

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Conservatives, conservative talkers and many conservative new media types like to suggest Speaker of the House John Boehner is not a real conservative. No, in fact, John Boehner is now appearing to be a virtual radical, if you read the interview he gave to Fox News. He is conducting institutional business in a way we have not seen it conducted before and (sigh) all the attempts to counter it with diversionary talk about Obama’s executive actions won’t alter what Boenher is doing in this instance. In a truly stunning Fox News interview he 1)admits he made sure the White House wasn’t told in advance about his invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu to address Congress and b)he (no joke) didn’t want Obama “to interfere” with the speech.

Firstly, there is no way, shape, or form that most of the folks defending this would champion this kind of political behavior if this didn’t center on the issue of Israel and involve Barack Obama. For some it is sincerely about policy, but for others its one more battle in a long-term war against Obama. And that is the bottom line — as impolite as it is to bluntly say it.

This has become a highly emotional issue now on several levels, with those defending Boehner angrily insisting this is not unprecedented, it’s needed or perhaps more honestly saying, yes, it hasn’t quite happened before but it’s perfectly OK now. The reality: Republicans would be screaming and demanding the scalp of any Democratic Speaker of the House who tried this on a Republican President.

But it’s one more example of how partisanship and/or interest in an issue negates consistency. Principles are relative — increasingly so in the 21st century. This isn’t merely about two national leaders who don’t get along. Not only is Boenher’s widely-panned action unprecedented, but what he says in this interview is unprecedented in his truly contemptuous tone. But, then again, that, too, is the trending in our 21st century polity:

“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace on Sunday quizzed House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on his decision to invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress.

Boehner invited Netanyahu without consulting the White House, leading numerous congressional Democrats to boycott the speech.

“Haven’t you taken one of the few bipartisan issues in this country — support for Israel — and turned it into a political football?” Wallace asked.

“I have not. The fact is that we had every right to do what we did,” Boehner responded. “I wanted the prime minister to come here. There’s a serious threat facing the world. And radical Islamic terrorists are not going to go away.”

“And then when it comes to the threat of Iran having a nuclear weapon, these are important messages that the Congress needs to here and the American people need to hear,” the speaker continued. “And I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu is the perfect person to deliver the message of how serious this threat is.”

There are lots of issues that could be — and are — raised from his statements above. For instance, it is indeed unprecedented for a Speaker of the House to slate something like this without offering the White House the courtesy to be on board in advance. We haven’t had Speakers of the House pulling this kind of move in this country. But, then, those backing Boehner will argue that’s not true (even though there are no facts to back it up that this has occurred before like this). But, here again, we’re increasingly seeing that facts don’t matter in our politics much anymore. It’s about how often and how assertively someone repeats their political mantra.

But really amazing part of the interview is this:

Wallace then pointed out that Boehner asked Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., not to tell the White House about the joint meeting with Netanyahu.
“Why would you do that?” Wallace asked
“Because I wanted to make sure that there was no interference. There’s no secret here in Washington about the animosity that this White House has for Prime Minister Netanyahu. I frankly didn’t want that getting in the way, quashing what I thought was a real opportunity,” Boehner responded.

So let me get this straight:

One day when there’s a Republican President who may wish to conduct a war, or take a hard line, or take a soft line, and who may be involved in some kind of negotiations or something unresolved going on — no matter if it seems level headed or realistic or not — a Democratic Speaker of the House can simply just invite the other head of state over to in effect lobby and politic to try and defeat that Republican President, and not inform the White House in advance? And, in fact, INTENTIONALLY make sure the White House doesn’t know in advance

I agree with blogger Martin Longman, who writes:

This is just maladjusted behavior on so many levels. It’s like not telling your parents that you’re pregnant when you’re planning to have the baby. You know, unless you go into hiding, your parents are eventually going to figure out that you’re having a baby.

But maybe you didn’t want your parents to talk you out of it. Maybe you figured you would wait until it was too late to get an abortion and then just spring the news on them when there was nothing they could do about it. That’s approximately what Boehner was doing here.

He didn’t want the White House to “quash” Netanyahu’s speech, so he didn’t run the idea by them. But he doesn’t care what the White House has to say about the matter and he hasn’t rescinded his invitation, so he obviously didn’t have to worry about the White House quashing anything.

He’s having his baby.

You get the feeling that Speaker Boehner is betting this is also a great political to put Democrats on the spot.

Do Democrats show up at the speech and support Netanyahu and therefore support Israel or do they not show up and show they don’t support or weakly support Israel?

I’m betting that in the end Boehner will suffer a political miscarriage.

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