Shakespeare wrote that our "fairest flow'rs" bloom in autumn, when we are "not yet on summer's death nor on the birth of trembling winter." Chris Krueger, investment advisor with Guggenheim Partners, disagrees. With immense trepidation he informed clients, in what has to be the campiest quote of last week, that John Boehner's departure now spikes the odds of a frigid debt-ceiling showdown.
Krueger phrased the matter thus: "Essentially, Boehner is the kindergarten teacher who is leaving his flock unsupervised and wants to get all the sharp objects out of the room before he goes off into the sunset." Yet the NY Times paraphrases the overall thrust of Krueger's advisory letter as one of "dismiss[ing] hopes that Mr. Boehner was about to play a bipartisan Mr. Fix-It on his way out the door."
I am left wondering who is confused most: Mr. Krueger, the NY Times, or me. Perhaps I'm misreading these battling quotes, but would not the removal of the sharper objects — a debt-ceiling collapse and government shutdown — be the precise act of a Mr. Fix-It Boehner, before exiting stage left?
For such a feat, the speaker requires only 30 Republican votes. Out of 247, that's doable. Pray tell me that's doable. Boehner could ram through a debt-ceiling lift, a year-long budget agreement, an infrastructure bill and a renewal of the Export-Import Bank. From The Winter's Tale to The Tempest — presto, the House's fairest flow'rs would bloom and trembling winter be postponed.
This, I should think, would be Boehner's midautumn night's dream: to stick it to the jesters and fools who have made his speakership a Dantean inferno.
Phil Schiliro, President Obama's former congressional liaison, reads the script as I do: "For most Republicans," he tells the Times, "resolving these issues now, instead of having the government shut down in December, would be a political plus." Indeed, it could spare the party from the gallows next year. Another government shutdown and perhaps a global financial explosion via a debt-ceiling collapse could be the final electoral straw for a party already straining under the burden of civil war.
Remove the sharp objects and let the extremists yelp. The latter will be safe either way; besides, they're always yelping about something. Yet those from purpling districts would be out from under the noose.
Holding hands with Boehner, Mitch McConnell could also play the partisan savior. He has some tough Senate reelection fights coming up, and the last thing he needs is for his endangered pals to be defending government shutdowns and financial detonations.
It's all up to Boehner. He says he doesn't worry about legacy. But this could be the finest historic moment of his speakership — his season of the fairest flow'rs.
I concede a lingering confusion, which borders on outright contradiction. Many times I've expressed my conviction that Republicans must take the nation to the abject bottom before the GOP plague can be extinguished. I still believe that; thus I am giddily optimistic that Boehner & Party will carry out suicide most foul. On the other hand, shutdown anarchy and economic maelstroms are hard pills to swallow. Hence I'm as torn as Hamlet — I know not where true honor lies.