While speaking to the partisan cheerleaders at “Fox News Sunday,” House Speaker John Boehner did his best to rationalize why he, and Republican Congressional leaders, made the controversial move of inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress in March, just weeks before elections in Israel. Boehner, with faux outrage on display, said:
“We have every right to do what we did. I wanted the prime minister to come here.”
However, it is the normal protocol to first consult with the White House before inviting a foreign leader to give an address to Congress. Again, Boehner attempted to turn the blame to the Obama Administration since he cannot possibly defend such a blatant disregard for the established rules by saying:
“(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 them getting in the way and quashing what I thought was a real opportunity.”
It is widely believed that Boehner and Netanyahu’s real agenda is to criticize and attempt to scuttle U.S.-Iran talks on freezing, and eliminating, Iran’s budding nuclear-enrichment program. A program which could eventually be utilized to produce weapons-grade nuclear material. Israel has called a nuclear Iran “an existential threat” to its very existence.
Boehner was also asked about the possibility of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) running out of funding if a deal is not reached between the House and Senate by February 27. The current stalemate is due to the inclusion of language which would also limit or de-fund President Obama’s recent actions on immigration reform. Boehner, trying to act like a tough guy, albeit one who cries at the drop of a hat, told Chris Wallace:
“The House has acted. We’ve done our job. Senate Democrats are the ones putting us in this precarious position. It’s up to Senate Democrats to get their act together.”
The Speaker also said he was “certainly” willing to let funding for Homeland Security lapse, and if it does, it will be the fault of the Democrats. This despite the fact that the GOP continues to whip up fear in America by claiming that ISIS and Al Qaeda pose an ever-growing threat to the world.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org