Huffpost Politics The Blog   Carl Pope Headshot  Over the Cliff
(and Into the Cooling Saucer)  Posted: Updated:  Well, John
Boehner rallied his Tea Party caucus by offering them another
$100 million in clean-energy hostages -- slashing federal loan
guarantees for new technologies other than advanced vehicles.
Combined with the threat that, otherwise, Boehner might actually
have to pass a continuing resolution that would in fact keep the
government operating -- by joining with Democrats -- he
persuaded 24 Republicans who had voted against him two days ago
to get in line.    But, as Boehner well knows, the fundamental
strategy of holding disaster relief hostage to cutting clean-
energy innovation, and then voting for less money for disasters
than Congress knows will actually be needed, cannot come close
to passing in the U.S. Senate. All Boehner has accomplished is
to persuade his Tea Party Caucus that if they just hold him
hostage, he will reward them with ever more handsome bribes.
(Boehner has apparently lear