Boehner Ultimately to Blame for Funding and Debt Ceiling Impasse

It looks as if the extremists on the political right in Congress won't get their way after all, as ineffectual Republican House Speaker John Boehner finally decided to allow a vote to continue government funding and raise the debt ceiling...at least for a few months, that is.  But I can't really blame the ideologues, exemplified by tea party senator Ted Cruz, for causing the crisis.  He is entitled to express his views within the Senate rules, and actually was quite friendly and respectable during the whole process.  It is the mainstream establishment Republican leaders like Speaker Boehner with whom I have issues.  For his part, this individual, who is supposed to be Speaker of the ENTIRE House of Representatives, not just the extreme right faction within his own party, displayed rudeness and open arrogance to the press and other leaders.  He ignored the interests, not only of the Democratic minority in the House (which I suppose can be excused) but also those of a large section of his own GOP caucus in blocking a resolution.  I personally cannot see him continuing in such an important leadership position when he has so clearly demonstrated his complete lack of competency in it...

But I think that Ted Cruz instead is going to be served up as the "sacrificial lamb" in the press for somehow having instigated this funding and debt ceiling crisis.  In fact, though, his Senate wasn't really holding things up: it was Boehner's House of Representatives.  Cruz is just a very outspoken, very conservative freshman senator from the conservative state of Texas.  He is being held up as a presidential prospect in 2016...something that the Democratic Party is looking forward to with anticipation and enthusiasm.  He talks a lot on the Senate floor and on those media shows sympathetic to the tea party like Hannity, Mark Levin, and Rush Limbaugh.  There is room in Congress for Ted Cruz: talk all you want, Ted, and cast your ONE vote!  But Boehner, with his authority as Speaker to determine what gets to be voted on, should be replace by someone, albeit possibly more conservative in his or her politics, with a greater sense of responsibility and decorum.