Terse, acerbic John Boehner was just on display in a middle of the night press conference that didn’t seem to serve any purpose for him or his party. With the government shutdown a little more than an hour old and his party having just voted to approve a negotiating gambit that the Democratic Senate rejected before it even became official, all eyes were on Boehner for clues about what comes next — and what tone he would set.
He ignored a couple of questions — including one about what he would say to those government workers who would be furloughed — instead sticking to talking points about legislative arcana. Then he just as abruptly walked away.
If this is going to the be the public face of the Republican Party for the duration of the shutdown, it’s going to be more politically painful than most people predicted.
Here’s the video:
  Â
