About 5pm today Central time I heard on NPR that the house republicans had caved in on their stance to hold out for a full year of the middle class tax cut. Everyone who knew anything about politics knew that Boehner's position was a sham. The house wasn't just holding out for a year long tax, they were adding all these other controversial things to it - like gutting the EPA, labor laws, permanent tax cuts for the rich, and on and on.

Apparently Boehner had already agreed to the senate compromise and then backed out of it. The republicans must have really been taking a hit in the polls, because even Mitch McConnell had to swallow his pride this morning and call on Boehner to give in to the senate. What happened to core beliefs, to spine?

The thing that is so absurd is that Boehner tries to come off as standing up for the working guy when no one believes it at all. What as it Lincoln said - you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. And that is what Boehner thinks he can do. Silly. It's amazing how bad these politicians can end up looking on the media. And even on the media that doesn't really want to make them look bad.

Boehner doesn't come off that bad as a personality. Better than I thought he would. But his substance is just not there. And that has become one of the trademarks of the republicans - no substance. That problem is permeating the republican presidential primary, as many of these guys who are fairly moderate in their beliefs try to shimmy to the right to pick up the necessary votes to get the nomination. It's a much more severe shimmying than even the democrats do - and Obama has had his share of shimmies.

Ever since Mitch McConnell announced that his number one goal was to make Obama a one term president, the republicans have gotten themselves mired in this strategy that appears more and more like it is a personal attack against this president - which it is. That gets interpreted by the general public as obstructionism. Obama comes off as a bit spineless but sincere and wanting to help. The republicans are setting themselves up to lose their majority in the house. McConnell is going have to share a lot of the blame as he is the main crafter of the strategy.