David Gergen says that John Boehner is being surprisingly reasonable. Democrats and the President are overplaying their hand and their recalcitrance may poison relations between the parties.
The gist of Gergen’s argument is that it should be enough from Republicans that they show any flexibility on tax hikes at all since they haven’t even entertained the idea for 22 years.
Some of the best passages from the piece …
In a breakthrough, House Speaker John Boehner quickly lined up behind the idea of the wealthy paying more. He still disagrees with the president on how to get there, of course, but critics are losing sight of how far Boehner seems prepared to go.
But there is now a danger of over learning that lesson, becoming so combative and rigid that good faith negotiations become almost impossible. Old White House hands from the GOP side — people who like our Presidents to succeed —are privately warning that if the White House and allied Democrats keep pushing so hard-fisted on deficits, Susan Rice and Senate filibuster rules, relations with Republicans on the Hill will become even more poisonous in the next four years than in the past.
