"When was the last time a party stuck with a leader after such devastating failures?"

Sssh! Don't call it to their attention. To quote Napoleon, "Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a grave mistake."

Crankily yours,

Boehner can lead the Repubs in the House until there aren't any left as far as I'm concerned. It shows that not only do they not understand why they're losing, they also don't even understand they're losing.

"Defenestrated" is one of the finest words in the English language. I particularly enjoyed seeing it used to describe Newt Gingrich.

When was the last time a party stuck with a leader after such devastating failures?

Um.... 2004?

They were a different kind of failures, but...

Let's not blame Boehner for 2006, While he was Majority Leader, Hastert was Speaker, and therefore the highest ranking Republican in Congress. Since Republicans treasure excuses as much as successes, I say we give them this one.

Maybe the precedent set by the Democrats yesterday on the Lieberman vote started a new trend in crazy behavior by members of Congress.

Obviously, Boehner used Lieberman's campaign manager. On the other hand, who's the alternative, Steve King?

Perhaps it wasn't so much a willingness to keep Boner as it was a reluctance to turn the helm over to a certified ideologue like Lungren.

By sticking with baby-face Boehner, House Republicans have admitted they are out of creative or imaginative solutions to our nation's needs. These guys and gals seemingly have not a clue of how to move forward away from the politics of self-destruction begun by their initial mentor, Mr. Newtie Gringrich in the early 1990s when he spewed vitriol toward his adversaries in often times an empty chamber of Congress. His antics were born out of the Atwater school of viciousness.

What Boehner, his colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle, and even good ol'Newtie himself don't get is that their Hortonization of our political discourse has so tainted our bodypolitik any attempt to go back will be summarily opposed by us common Americans.

No, the demise of the Republican will be assured if the surviving Republicans insist on going backward! -Kevo

Way to go GOP! Here's to taking 18 more seats in '10!

If it's a nautical comparison you want, I like the case of Captain Pollard of the whaling ship "Essex" out of Nantucket. This is the boat that served Melville as the model of the Pequod--it was attacked by a sperm whale and sunk. The survivors were crammed into whale boats in the middle of the Pacific and resorted to cannibalism to survive.

The comparison that seems apt, here, is that Pollard was one of the survivors and after his return to Nantucket was given ANOTHER ship. He lost that one, too. When I think of the parallels with the Republicans in Congress, I can only hope.

The Oscar-worthy performance left both moderates and right-wingers impressed.

If you want to know the source of the GOP's troubles, this is it. Instead of attempting to craft solutions that appeal to moderates and conservatives, they pretend to appeal to both separately and they usually get away with it. That means they get power, but they never really have any kind of mandate for how they're supposed to be using that power.

Reagan mastered this approach of keeping both groups happy by telling each of them what they wanted to hear. He was so good he could do it in the same speech and convince both groups that what he said supported a moderate or conservative worldview depending on who the hearer was. Boehner's not that impressive, but he's good enough to fool the rubes in the House GOP caucus apparently.

"...hours later, he minted himself a pro-bailout hero by hamming it up for the bill on the House floor, weeping and pleading, "What's in the best interest of our country? Vote yes!" The Oscar-worthy performance left both moderates and right-wingers impressed."

There is the answer to your question. They think they need his drama in order to take their case to the people when the big, bad Dems take advantage of them. I seem to remember him going from the floor to an already waiting podium on the steps of the Capital to whine about how unfair the Dems were being (I forget the issue now). Republicans, like it or not, are much better at drama and taking their case to the people. Dems took the middle of the night vote shut-outs and threats of "nuclear options" and sulked.

I think it is more a matter of the Republican party being is such dire straits right now that none of the members wanted the job, except the obviously inappropriate Lungren.

After yesterday, it's nice to see that the no-accountability thing is at least being applied bipartisanly.

One other thing to watch. In the Gov conference, they chose all Southerners for leadership positions. One of Bush's legacies is to turn the party over to the CSA crowd, and while Ohio isn't technically in the South, that's a difference without a distinction.

This just illustrates that for the last eight years the Republicans in Congress took their marching orders from the White House fax machine and it didn't really matter who was nominally in charge of the caucus. Rubber stamping the party line didn't take much in the way of leadership when the outcome was never in doubt, after all.

It still hasn't sunk in, I think, that the game has totally changed now, or maybe they're so despondent they just don't care anymore. Either way, I'm still laughing all the way to the Oval Office.

noncarborundum is right. Rewarding failure is not exclusive to either party.

Who Knew ...Blogs educate ..I had to look it up and is nice to know you cam always get free shipping over $25 on defenestrated at Amazon ( From the Merriam -Webster web site)
http://dictionary.weather.net/dictionary/defenestrated

defenestrated
One entry found.

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Main Entry: de·fen·es·tra·tion
Pronunciation: \(ˌ)dē-ˌfe-nə-ˈstr�-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: de- + Latin fenestra window
Date: 1620
1 : a throwing of a person or thing out of a window
2 : a usually swift dismissal or expulsion (as from a political party or office)
— de·fen·es·trate \(ˌ)dē-ˈfe-nə-ˌstr�t\ transitive verb

When was the last time a party stuck with a leader after such devastating failures?

Who knows, but I for one wish Mr. Boehener good health and long life!

The Republicans have Boehner. The Democrats have Lieberman. Which of them is more likely to inflict serious wounds on his own mates?

For all of us living in Ohio I apologize for the embarassment to Ohio, the USA, and the planet Earth that Boner is.

Pelosi hurt GOP lawmakers' feelings; is that not the height of hypocrisy coming at the time that the GOP was calling President to be Obama everything short of the N word!

gotta agree with always hopeful. the repubs keep boehner around because he's the only one who can cry on cue.

This wasn't a surprise, but the decision is nevertheless odd.

Its only odd if you don't consider the alternative.

I agree with Curmudgeon about the WH obviating the need for any policymaking "leadership". So who's fax machine is going to be running the show starting in January?

Duck! Here comes more education!

The most famous defenestration in history was the Defenestration of Prague on May 23, 1618, when a group of Protestants chucked three representatives of the Catjolic king Ferdinand out the windows of the Bobemian Chancellery, thus starting the Thirty Years War. (All three survived.) Apparently this is somewhat of a tradition in Bohemia, as it is sometimes refered to as the Second Defenestration of Prague, because it had been done before, with slightly more fatal results to the victims.

I agree with Curmudgeon about the WH obviating the need for any policymaking "leadership". So who's fax machine is going to be running the show starting in January?

Rush Limbaugh's

I think that the answer is obvious. Boehner started crying. The R's started to feel sorry for him. He retained his job. :-)

I'm just saying.

When was the last time a party stuck with a leader after such devastating failures?

Errington Thompson stole my answer!

Obviously, he's a World Champion Crier. They either feel sorry for him or just can't stand the sniffling.

Boehner is soon going to have to throw together another schtick - blubbering can only take you so far. Maybe he can work on simulated convulsions, or a seizure. Get to work, Johnnie; it's later than you think.

Maybe he's just a "placeholder"...

Is it possible that the Republicans are in such a disarray that there isn't any clear leadership choice? Once all the knives have been planted in the appropriate backs, and consensus reached, Boehner can step down/be shoved aside/defenestrated...

(Then again, the last time I tried to predict Republican behavior, I claimed that even -they- weren't crazy enough to keep Palin as VP... Who knew?)

"Defenestrated" is indeed a lovely and elegant word, vastly superior to the phrase "threw under the bus" that seems to be the current favorite for the action.

Nothing short of crazy

Crazy Republicans? Never!