Boehner on Fantasy Island

Gail Collins, NYT
FEB. 7, 2014

House Speaker John Boehner has his good moments. For instance, I always enjoy it when he brushes off a question by saying: “If ands and buts were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas.”

Also, there was the time he dressed down one of his members, Steve King of Iowa, for describing Dreamers — young people who were illegally brought into the country when they were children — as a generation of drug mules. (“... and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”)

Plus, Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas says that when he thanked Boehner for standing up to King, Boehner responded. “What an ass.” I’m editing, but you get the idea.

So, a lot to appreciate when it comes to Boehner on the subject of the great melting pot. Until Thursday, when the speaker pretty much tossed the idea of immigration reform over a railing. This was a metaphorical railing and not the one that the congressman from Staten Island threatened to throw a reporter over.

(More here.)