It's All Politics 9:23 am Fri December 23, 2011  Boehner's 2012
Challenges Highlighted By Payroll Tax Misstep  House Speaker
John Boehner announces a payroll tax cut extension agreement,
December 22, 2011. Credit Evan Vucci / AP  Originally published
on Mon December 26, 2011 10:09 am  When the histories of the
current 112th Congress are finally written, maybe it all will
become clear.  But for right now, there seem to be many more
questions than answers.  For instance, why did House Republicans
ever think it was a good idea to stake out a position on the
payroll-tax issue that would leave them holding the bag for a
new year's tax increase for 160 million workers? That has now
been averted with Congress' passage Friday morning of a two-
month extension of the current payroll-tax holiday.  Also, how
is it that Speaker John Boehner didn't force his freshmen to
bend to political reality last weekend after the Senate
overwhelmingly approved the extension, a deal that President
Obama and Senate leaders had the impre