Hey, let's remember that Kennedy/Sorensen's Profiles in Courage is a rather thin volume for a good, and self-evident, reason.
In fact so good and self-evident is the truth of political self-preservation that I can't help but think that Harry Reid was compelled to suppress a chuckle when he charged this morning that the House is "being run" by the "dictatorship" of the boehnerariat. Reid, reports the Hill, said the speaker "cares more about his speakership than protecting middle-class Americans from tax hikes."
Imagine that.
Of course one could argue--and this, too, I'm sure Reid understands--that there's actually an element of subtle virtue in Boehner's dictatorship. The speaker probably believes--or rather knows--that a passed bill now would only doom his renewed speakership later; thereupon the odds of a real Neanderthal taking charge would increase exponentially; and then absolutely nothing but tortured tea-party cretinism would ever make it out of the House.
Self-preservation and creeping sanity may yet harmoniously meet.