Farm bill debacle shows John Boehner needs Nancy Pelosi

By Greg Sargent, WashPost, Updated: June 20, 2013

In another embarrassment for House Speaker John Boehner, the farm bill went down to a surprise defeat in the House this afternoon, 195-234. Most Democrats voted against it, because of its deep cuts to food stamps, but what really sealed its fate is that in spite of those cuts, 62 Republicans voted against it, too, apparently because it didn’t cut spending enough.

The leadership of the House GOP — which, last time I checked, controls the Lower Chamber – is blaming Democrats for failing to deliver enough votes to make passage possible. A spokesman for Eric Cantor claimed it shows Dems “are not able to govern.” Jed Lewison has a good post demonstrating how absurd this is:

First, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made it clear earlier this week that Democrats weren’t going to provide the winning margin. Second, if Republicans insist on doing things like trying to cut $20 billion from food assistance programs, they really shouldn’t be shocked when Democrats don’t enthusiastically jump on board.

I’d add, however, that this is useful in a perverse way, as a reminder of the degree to which the House GOP leadership needs Democrats to get things done, given its inability to count on the support of House conservatives. And this has implications for the immigration debate, too.

“This underscores that Boehner cannot pass bills on his own,” Congressional scholar Norman Ornstein told me in a quick interview today. “He can’t do anything with only Republicans. The real power center in the House is not Boehner. It’s not Cantor. It’s not Ryan. It’s not McCarthy. It’s the extreme right. This shows the real dilemma ahead for a Speaker who is very weak and very conscious of his weakness within the party.”

(More here.)