House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Sunday admitted that House Republicans’ last minute attempts to keep the Department of Homeland Security open on Friday night were “messy.”
After many House Republicans refused to pass a bill to fund DHS for three weeks that did not address President Obama’s actions on immigration, House Democrats and Republicans voted for a bill to fund the department for one week.
CBS’ “Face the Nation” guest host John Dickerson asked Boehner on Sunday if he likes his job as Speaker.
Boehner said that he enjoys his job most of the time, but that Friday “wasn’t a whole lot of fun.”
“It was just messy,” Boehner continued. “And I’m not into messy. But listen, I enjoy being in a legislative body. I enjoy all the personalities, and I’ve got a lot of them.”
However, the Speaker still tried to pin the near-shutdown on the president.
“I made it clear we’re going to do everything we could to block the president’s executive over-reach, and that’s the basis of the problem that we’re trying to deal with,” he said, adding that the “Senate refused to pass their own bill.”
Dickerson asked Boehner about the Republicans who refused to vote for the three-week funding extension because it did not address the president’s immigration actions.
“We do have some members who disagree from time to time over the tactics that we decide to employ. But remember, Republicans are united in this idea that the president has far exceeded his constitutional authority,” he said. “We get into an argument over tactics from time to time. The goals are all the same.”
But Dickerson then asked Boehner if that group of conservatives had “a plan that could have succeeded and passed and signed by the president that would have gotten them what they wanted.”
“Not that I know of,” Boehner said.
The Speaker also addressed reports that he promised House Democrats a vote on a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
“The promise I made to Ms. Pelosi is the same promise I made to Republicans: that we would follow regular order,” Boehner said.
Watch part of Boehner’s interview via CBS:
“And I’m not into messy”
Really?
I would say that’s the defining characteristic of Boehner’s tenure once you factor out chaotic and meandering.
Dude, you are the definition of messy. A walking, talking hot mess of a man.
Well, if you’re not into messy might I suggest that you grow a backbone, inform the GOP they can whine about things all they want, get Democrats to support funding the government and stop standing next to the fan the shit keeps hitting!
Not into messy, huh? It’s what you and your party LIVE for. Someone please make it stop.
You noticed it was the President’s fault they couldn’t pass their own bill? All he had to do to avoid the “messy” was to bring the Senate clean bill up for a vote. It would have passed with bipartisan support but no the President forced him not to bring it up.