THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

It's not every day that you hear the Speaker of the House, next in line after the Vice President, parroting the dreadfully stale talking points of a rogue state leader in defense of an indefensible invitation to that rogue leader, but that is exactly what John Boehner did on Sunday night.

House Speaker John Boehner Sunday defended his invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress in March, saying that President Barack Obama is ignoring threats posed by Iran and terrorists.

In a joint interview with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on CBS’ ‘60 Minutes,’ Boehner accused Obama of barely discussing terrorism in his State of the Union speech last Tuesday.

‘The president didn’t spend but a few seconds talking about the threat, the terrorist threat that we as Americans face,’ Boehner, R-Ohio, said. ‘This problem is growing all over the world. And you know, the president is trying to act like it’s not there. But it is there.’

Boehner said he wants Netanyahu to speak to Congress because ‘there’s nobody in the world who can talk about the threat of radical terrorism, nobody (who) can talk about the threat that the Iranians pose, not just to the Middle East and to Israel…but to the entire world, but Bibi Netanyahu.’

Boehner announced his Netanyahu invite after Obama, in his State of the Union speech, repeated his call for Congress not to impose new sanctions against Iran as negotiators continue talks on its nuclear program. Lawmakers are teeing up measures to impose new sanctions on　Iran or require congressional approval for any nuclear deal struck with the Tehran government.

‘Under the proposal we’re considering those enhanced sanctions would only occur if a deal is not reached,’ McConnell said. ‘In other words, it further incentivizes the Iranians to reach an agreement because they know things could get considerably worse if they do not.’

There is a certain demented symmetry in one of the greatest threats to the integrity of the United States inviting one of the greatest threats to the Middle East to Capital Hill for tea and biscuits. Unfortunately their end is to get more American servicemen killed for their warped power dreams.