December 24, 2012--Coalition Government

Now that our federal government has proven itself unable to govern (which suits Tea Party folks since they, in the words of their guru Grover Norquist, want to shrink the size of the government so much that it can be "drowned in a bathtub"), now that they have opted to ignore the ramifications of going over the fiscal cliff and went home for the holidays (at full pay), what to do?

Reset the apocalypse clock again and wait for the end of at least the United States as we know it or figure out how to get some important things done?

I prefer the latter and have a serious suggestion as to how to proceed that you may think is delusional--

Democrats in the House of Representatives should make sure John Boehner is reelected Speaker of the House once the 113th Congress convenes January 3rd, and then work with him to pass a spate of  legislation that will do us some good. All of us, but especially the struggling middle class.

Here's how it would work--

Boehner may very well need Democratic votes to retain the speakership because enough of the ultra-rightwing members of his party may choose not to vote for him in the hope that if he fails to get the votes required, one of their darlings, Eric Cantor or Paul Ryan, will become Speaker.

If you think Boehner is bad just think what it would be like to have either Cantor or Ryan in charge of the House. Is your passport still valid? I just checked mine, and I'm good to go.

The reason John Boehner may very likely need votes is because in order to become Speaker one has to get a majority of 435 votes, the total number of House members, not just a majority of one's own party.

Do the arithmetic--the next Congress will be made up of 233 Republicans, 200 Democrats, and then there are two vacant seats which will not likely be filled come early January. To be elected, Boehner will need 218 votes. That means if only 19 members of his own party vote against him or vote "present," he will not be Speaker.

Nancy Polosi should right now be privately rounding up 20-25 Democrats to vote for Boehner if necessary.

(She can extract her price, or revenge, two years hence when Democrats defeat a dozen or so incumbent Republicans and she herself retakes the speakership.)

And let's hope Boehner needs this help because if he does we will have a truly coalition government that has a chance of working.

Coalition governments in other countries come into existence when there is a crisis--as there surely now is in America. Israel, for example, is in a permanent crisis and they have a Likud prime minister (Benjamin Natanyhau) and a Labor defense minister (Ehud Barak).

Britain has a Tory prime minister (David Cameron) and a Liberal Democrat deputy-prime minister (Nick Clegg).

And Lincoln, when our country faced its ultimate crisis, assembled a "team of rivals."

Things with Lincoln turned out pretty well--the United Staes still exists. So maybe we should try this coalition approach now.