Pope Visits; Flood of Tears Washes Boehner Out of Office

So I have resolved to try to post a little more often, at least while the boss is on hiatus. The greatest difficulty, however, has been choosing a topic from the cornucopia of stupefaction that describes politics in America these days. I finally gave up and decided to refer to the more newsworthy of the recent events. For our Catholic readers, my apologies in advance.

The arrival of Pope Francis marked the fourth pope and 10th papal visit to the United States, and the first since Benedict visited in 2008. As we all know too well, much has changed in the United States since the last time a pope has been greeted here:

If you have been paying any attention to his remarks while here, you know the world has gone crazy when the Pope spends more time talking about politics and the environment than he does religion. It seems that one characteristic of the utter failure of leadership in the 21st Century is that no one wants to do their own job anymore, they just want to tell others how to do theirs. One moment of head-shaking hilarity occurred when the Pope chastised Americans over immigration policy and urged Congress to soften on immigration. No reference was made in these remarks to the immigration policy of the Vatican, itself a sovereign nation, or whether they we going to do something about these walls:

Er, how many young male refugees of military age from Syria is Vatican City taking in, again?

Liberals enjoyed his remarks before Congress immensely, especially as the Pope failed to condemn Planned Parenthood for single-handedly creating a thriving marketplace for the body parts of unborn children, or even a strongly worded mention of papal policy on abortion in general.  What is the Pope for, again? I forgot (Full disclosure: I was born and raised Roman Catholic).

Boehner was clearly brought to tears several times during the Pope’s remarks.  In other news, Bruce Jenner still has a dick.

But the highlight of the week came when John Boehner discovered the next morning that he would be unable to stop crying ever again, and was forced to step down from the Speaker’s podium at the end of October and wouldn’t be allowed to stop walking until he was back in Ohio. Weirdly, he scheduled and then cancelled a midday press conference on the announcement, presumably since he could not stop crying:

(Look, if I had to endure this crap, you do too.)

In keeping with his abysmal record while Speaker, Boehner’s timing could not be worse (or better, depending on your perspective).  It creates much confusion over issues of Planned Parenthood funding amid discussion of a government shutdown (yes, please), and provokes an unseemly brawl over the position and others that might be vacated during the musical chairs of a leadership change.

Pop some popcorn and watch this mess closely. McCarthy is Boehner’s hand-picked successor after Cantor was primaried by a Tea Party member ( I still have warm feelings thinking about that).  Of the names bandied about, Hensarling is probably the most conservative. The Tea Party members in the Congress are reportedly committed to rallying behind one conservative candidate, and it’s a sure bet it won’t be McCarthy, who is only marginally more conservative than the decidedly progressive RINO Boehner.