During Thursday's edition of the Wall Street Journal, an anonymous administration official was quoted as saying of the shutdown battle: "We are winning…It doesn't really matter to us" how long the shutdown lasts "because what matters is the end result."
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has since tried to capitalize on this, apparently in the shallow hopes that everything else pertaining to the spending and debt ceiling bills had already been forgotten.
"This isn't some damn game!" said Boehner while slamming a copy of the paper down on his podium. "The American people don't want their government shut down, and neither do I."
Which begs the question: If it isn't a game, why is Boehner so intent on treating it like it is?
At least twenty Republican members of Congress have already signaled, publicly, that they would support the "clean" continuing resolution supported by the Senate. They, along with the two hundred Democratic members of Congress, would be enough to see the bill pass in the House and onto the President's desk.
The only reason this has not happened is because Boehner has refused to hold such a vote. The shutdown could literally be over tomorrow if Boehner would allow it.
Boehner also pleaded that "All we're asking for is for Harry Reid to appoint conferees so we can sit down and have a conversation." Though if that had been what Boehner truly wanted, the Democrats had given him as many as eighteen separate opportunities.
Boehner had blocked every single one of them.
In the future, Boehner would be wise to start practicing before he starts preaching.
