If Congress won't listen, then it's
time to go to the public (Jim Young/Reuters)
Multiple reporters—
Sam Stein,
Sam Youngman, and
Glenn Thrush— report that Obama administration officials tell them that John Boehner was privately briefed about the timing of President Obama's jobs speech request and that he voiced no objections until
rejecting the request this afternoon.
Boehner's office concedes that it was briefed ahead of time, but denies agreeing to the date. But even if they didn't explicitly agree to the schedule, unless they voiced an objection, they were quite clearly operating in bad faith.
But all that is really beside the point. For what is almost certainly the first time in the history of our nation, the Speaker of the House has rejected a request from the President to speak on a matter of great national urgency. Everything else about this story is noise.
Of course, Republicans will try to sidetrack the discussion by questioning why President Obama had to pick the same night as the Republicans had scheduled a presidential debate. But the answer is simple: Wednesday is the first day the House returns to session after it's month-long vacation. What could possibly be more urgent than getting to work right away at creating jobs?
Certainly a Republican presidential debate couldn't be more urgent, especially when it can be delayed by an hour and wasn't even going to be broadcast on national networks anyway. And don't forget, this is primary season; GOP debates are a dime a dozen. There are two or three scheduled that week this month next month alone. They are so unimportant that John Boehner didn't even watch the first GOP debate.
So this isn't really about the debate. It's not even really about a scheduling conflict. This is the GOP's way of telling President Obama that he can go to hell for all they care—that there is no chance in the world that they will work with him on passing legislation to boost job creation. If they can't even agree to listen to a speech, there's no chance they'll agree to anything that will strengthen our economy.
Whatever ends up happening, President Obama should still give a speech next Wednesday. If Republicans refuse to hear to what he has to say, then it's time to take his message straight to the public.
4:21 PM PT: FWIW, Boehner's office confirms that it did not object to the proposed date when White House requested it.