A tale of two Boehners

Boehner in February:

“The president seems to change the health care law on a whim, whenever he likes.

“Now, he is running around the country telling everyone he’s going to keep acting on his own. He keeps talking about his phone and his pen.

“And he’s feeding more distrust about whether he is committed to the rule of law.

“Listen, there’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws.

“It’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.”

Boehner since February:

Speaker John Boehner and other senior House Republicans are telling donors and industry groups that they aim to pass immigration legislation this year, despite the reluctance of many Republicans to tackle the divisive issue before the November elections.

Many lawmakers and activists have assumed the issue was off the table in an election year. But Mr. Boehner said at a Las Vegas fundraiser last month he was “hellbent on getting this done this year,” according to two people in the room.

A spokesman for Mr. Boehner didn’t dispute the account but said no action is possible until President Barack Obama proves himself a trustworthy partner to Republicans.

I know what Mr. Spokesman is saying, but I’m just not sure I can reconcile the two statements like he did. There should be no reason Boehner is hellbent on doing immigration if the president can’t be trusted to enforce the laws, and clearly he can’t be.

So which Boehner is telling the truth? Does he really want to compromise to do immigration reform or is he saying immigration is dead until we can get a president we can trust?


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