Boehner bows to birthers

Leadership. It may be hard to define, but you know it when you see it. And you know it when you don’t.

On Sunday morning’s “Meet the Press,” it was clearly lack of leadership that was on display.

On the hot seat: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Who didn’t hesitate to say he accepts President Obama at his word: that he is a Christian and an American citizen, born in America.

But then, like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on the same show just three weeks ago, Boehner refused to take the next step and criticize those nutball Republicans who show up on Fox almost daily, insisting that Obama is a Muslim. Nor would he condemn those Birthers who don’t believe Obama was born in the United States, and is therefore not a legitimate president.

Leadership. It may be hard to define, but you know it when you see it. And you know it when you don’t.

On Sunday morning’s “Meet the Press,” it was clearly lack of leadership that was on display.

On the hot seat: Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Who didn’t hesitate to say he accepts President Obama at his word: that he is a Christian and an American citizen, born in America.

But then, like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on the same show just three weeks ago, Boehner refused to take the next step and criticize those nutball Republicans who show up on Fox almost daily, insisting that Obama is a Muslim. Nor would he condemn those Birthers who don’t believe Obama was born in the United States, and is therefore not a legitimate president.

Instead, Boehner piously insisted it’s not his job to tell people what to believe. Nonsense. That’s what Boehner does for a living. He’s always telling people what to believe about taxes and jobs and healthcare and immigration and every other issue.

As Speaker, it’s also his job to tell loony-tunes Republicans to stop denying the faith and the citizenship of the president of the United States — especially when, according to WorldNetDaily, there are over a dozen Republican members of Congress who are self-professed Birthers and refuse to accept Obama’s citizenship.

Surely, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives has a duty to instruct all members of Congress to deal with differences on the issues and stop denying the faith and the citizenship of the president of the United States.

But, of course, that would take a real leader.

Visit Mr. Press's website at billpressshow.com.