John Boehner, a tragic comedy

On Wednesday, the House Tea-Publicans voted to sue President Obama for taking “unilateral action” without Congress’ permission.

On Thursday, after the debacle of the border emergency funding bill in the House, the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, pleaded with President Obama to take “unilateral action” on immigration to address a humanitarian crisis that House Tea-Publicans refuse to address. Boehner issued this statement which included this passage:

This situation shows the intense concern within our conference – and among the American people – about the need to ensure the security of our borders and the president’s refusal to faithfully execute our laws.  There are numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action, to secure our borders and ensure these children are returned swiftly and safely to their countries.

The Fool on The Hill becomes more incoherent and detached from reality every day. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid couldn’t resist trolling the TanMan. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his office told Talking Points Memo:

“Senator Reid agrees with House Republican leaders’ statement that President Obama has the authority to take steps on immigration reform on his own,” [spokesman Adam Jentleson] said. “He’s glad Republicans have come around and hopes this means they’ll be dropping their frivolous lawsuit against the President, instead of continuing to waste the American people’s time and money.”

The headlines in the Washington Post this morning tell the story of the House GOP border debacle:

• GOP pulls border bill rather than face defeat
• GOP delivers another self-inflicted wound
• House Republicans are the gang who can’t shoot straight. Again.
• The ‘do-nothing’ Congress isn’t even good at doing nothing anymore

The House Tea-Publicans are going to try again sometime today. GOP Leaders Pitch Revised Border Package, Hope to Vote Today. But as Greg Sargent succinctly explains in the Morning Plum today, it’s all just for show:

So today House Republicans may take one more stab at trying to pass a bill to address the border crisis. But their bill has been jacked so far to the right that Dems won’t support it, and at any rate, last night Republicans blocked the Senate Dem border proposal. So Congress won’t address the crisis until September at the earliest.

The Senate finished its business Thursday night and will hold just a pro forma session today, not expecting to return to work until September 8. So no border emergency funding bill will be heading to the desk of the president for his signature before Congress takes a five week recess.

Steve Benen documents the many times Boehner has been rolled by his own GOP Caucus:

John Boehner’s Speakership is turning into something of a tragedy. How many times has he put together a bill, only to be betrayed by his own followers? A Democratic source on Capitol Hill recently sent around a brutal collection of bills Boehner asked his members to support, only to see his own House GOP conference reject his appeals: a grand bargain, a debt-ceiling bill in 2011, a payroll tax extension, a transportation bill, a farm bill, one fiscal-cliff bill, another fiscal-cliff bill, another farm bill, and then yesterday. I think my source might have even missed a couple, including the collapse of Boehner’s debt-ceiling bill in February 2014.

Eric Cantor, former number two in the House GOP leadership, announced today that he is exiting Congress early. Cantor to leave Congress altogether on Aug. 18. The TanMan should take this as his cue to do the same and join him. The “Worst. Speaker. Ever.” simply does not deserve to hold his high office.