Barney Frank: “We have a sad spectacle today of a substantive mess brought to us by a procedural bigger mess. But I can't entirely…”

“We have a sad spectacle today of a substantive mess brought to us by a procedural bigger mess. But I can't entirely blame Speaker Boehner. We have seen him all week forced to retreat continually from an effort to be conservative but somewhat responsible to a position where today we have a bill that no one thinks will solve the problem because it makes as a prerequisite to raising the debt a constitutional amendment that no one thinks will pass. I remember Speaker O'Neill when I got here, and there's one thing he and Speaker Boehner seem to have in common, and that's a theme song. Speaker O'Neill's theme song was ``I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time.'' By now, Speaker Boehner is entitled to take as his theme song ``It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To'' because his party has forced him to retreat, first of all, from the position he tried to take to get this thing done; and, secondly, from a set of promises he made procedurally. As a result of where we are today, with martial law rules and amendments being sprung and amendments not being vetted, there is no procedural promise that the Republicans made that they have left unbroken. So we have a flawed bill, brought to us by a weakened Speaker, under an unfortunate and undemocratic process. Once it's out of the way, once whatever impulses have driven members of his own party so to undercut him are satisfied, maybe then in an adult way we can sit down and work this out.…”