The Dean Pulls a Boehner

I'll say this much for David "Dean" Broder: He won't let Washington turn him into a cynic, by God. The eternal Pollyanna of American political journalism writes that this time John Boehner is sincere when he calls for reform of House rules.

David, I appreciate that you are only 81, have been covering politics for a mere 50+ years, and thus haven't lost the sheen of innocence. So I hate to be the one to tell you this but, well, Boehner -- one of the authors of the "cycle of gridlock" of the last two years -- didn't mean a single word that he said.

When you write that we should all "hope that Democrats respond" to Boehner's ABM disguised as an olive branch, don't you really mean that we should hope that Republicans respond? You know, glass houses, putting your own house in order, and all that? After all, which party is home to Michelle Bachman, Jim DeMint, Sarah Palin, Eric Cantor, and, well, John Boehner? Who was cheering on an out-of-control mob of teabaggers from the Capitol balcony? And why should I believe that a party hoping to elect the likes of Sharon Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, and Dino Rossi wants bipartisan reform of process or bipartisan anything?

So, Big Dave, why should the Democrats or anyone else take Boehner at his word? Oh, I get it: "Before he became a floor leader," Boehner was a serious legislator. Now that he's about the become the ultimate floor leader, Boehner will be different -- he'll be a serious guy again. The cynicism of the past couple of years was an unfortunate but necessary price to pay for the right man to get in position to ameliorate the "threat to our system of government."

In short, he had to burn the village in order to save it...

This encore presentation goes out to NM and Roy: