One thing is certain, Ohio's John Boehner is no Ben Franklin

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CGE) - A new year brings new challenges, and that means that House Republicans, who a year ago elected Ohio Congressman John Boehner speaker, will have to decide if they want to continue to put their trust in him as their leader and chief negotiator or whether intra-party fissures will fracture the GOP's ability to regain the confidence of Americans, who have tired of the brinksmanship antics of Tea Party wing members.

 

Speaker Boehner, who came to power when 87 freshman Republicans sent to Congress in 2010 at the height of Tea Party prowess elected him their leader, has since been humbled by his inability to count on his Tea Party members falling in line over deals he has negotiated with the White House. Needless to say, his more outspoken Tea Party wing members have issues with him. ne to support deals he made behind closed doors with the White House.

 

Reports say that House Republicans are going into 2012 weaker and more divided than when they took control of the chamber a year ago. There is clear discomfort within the 242-member House Republican Conference with the party's jobs agenda and messaging. According to Jake Sherman at Politico, some members are itching for an election-year reboot, including whether Boehner can still be their go-to guy.

 

"Leadership's gotta get the Republicans fighting for something, in terms of a positive agenda, Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner, said about the coming year. Reports says there is more disunity, grumbling and finger-pointing than there has been all year among GOP leadership personalities. One senior House Republican aide said Boehner has to explain what happened last year, and lay out a clear understanding how this leadership is going to work going forward. 

 

History tells us that Ben Franklin, one of the nation's best known founding fathers, was vested with powers Speaker Boehner wished he had but has not been given to him by his irascible Majority Caucus.

 

In today's connected world, communication moves at the speed of electricity. In Franklin's day, when it took weeks to cross the Atlantic ocean to Europe, it was unheard of for him to shuttle back and forth to check whether a young American Congress, who sent him to France to negotiate the Peace Treaty of Versailles (1783), ending the American Revolution, would agree or not with treaty specifics. To solve that transportation problem, Franklin was endowed with plenipotentiary powers, as were John Adams and John Jay who were likewise named "minister plenipotentiary of the United States" to the Netherlands and Spain, respectively.

 

Plenipotentiary refers to a person or diplomat who has "full powers" vested by an appointing authority to negotiate the best deal possible. Speaker Boehner, an 18-year Congressman from a reliable GOP district in southwest Ohio, buckled on more than one occasion on commitments he made with White House negotiators. What Boehner negotiated behind closed doors didn't pass muster with his Tea Party wing members, who refused to fall in line behind him.

 

Maybe Obama knew this all along, which could explain why he offered to cut trillions in government spending deals that also included raising taxes a few percentage points on millionaires and billionaires, figuring Boehner would fold when it came time to whipping his members to vote for the deals he made.

 

What is certain is that Speaker Boehner's inability to deliver on promises made him the poster child for uncertainty, a word Republicans have adopted to attack the White House and Congressional Democrats for not agreeing to their legislative agenda.  

 

If John Boehner wants to be the speaker who can deliver for Republicans in a way that shows he has the full faith and trust of the members who elected him, he might want to be more like Ben Franklin, John Adams and John Jay, who didn't need to sail back across the Atlantic to check on whether Congress would support the deals they had made.